Bitfinex launches ETH and BTC loans

The lending service of Virgin Islands-based crypto exchange Bitfinex began offering ether and bitcoin personal loans today.

According to an announcement shared with Modern Consensus on Dec. 18, the Bitfinex Borrow peer-to-peer crypto asset loan platform now allows its users to make or take out bitcoin and ether personal loans. The firm’s chief technology officer Paolo Ardoino said:

“These latest additions to Bitfinex Borrow further demonstrates our commitment to delivering quality products for our users.”

Thanks to the new service, Bitfinex customers can now use fiat currencies such as the United States dollar, the euro or the Japanese yen, as well as the tether (USDt) stablecoin issued by Bitfinex’s sister company Tether, as collateral to obtain a loan in BTC. ETH loans, on the other hand, can only be financed by the United States dollars that the borrower holds on the platform.

Bitfinex Borrow users will be able to obtain bitcoin loans of up to 80% of the value of their USD, USDt or EUR holdings, or up to 70% of the value of their JPY holdings. Customers using the platform to borrow ether will be able to get up to 80% of the value of their dollar holdings. The annual percentage rate on Bitcoin loans is 4.16%, while for Ethereum loans it is 1.14%.

Loans emerge as major crypto application

Crypto asset-powered loans and borrowing is increasingly emerging as one of the top crypto use cases. As Modern Consensus reported, cryptocurrency lending and interest-earning service Celsius Network doubled its assets under management in just six months in November, reaching a total of over $2.2 billion, before growing them another 50% to $3.3 billion currently. In November, the firm’s CEO claimed that this explosive growth shows that “interest income is the new killer app for crypto.”

Major players are starting to also participate in the space. Earlier this month the crypto assets arm of financial services giant Fidelity partnered with crypto lender BlockFi to power custody services for lending applications. Christine Sandler, head of sales and marketing for Fidelity Digital Assets, said at the time: