Lending firm Ledn has completed the first Bitcoin-backed debt securitization, raising $188 million. This transaction, structured as an Asset-Backed Securities (ABS) and led by investment bank Jefferies, received a BBB- rating from S&P Global Ratings for its main tranche.
What was once a niche and highly speculative market is now formally integrated into the fixed-income balance sheets of the world’s largest institutions under a standardized credit rating framework.
The transaction consolidates a portfolio of over 5,400 loans secured exclusively with Bitcoin. The average interest rate on these loans is 11.8%, a figure that reflects both the volatility premium and the high demand for liquidity from long-term holders (HODLers).
The investment-grade tranche represents 75% of the total issuance, leaving the remainder as a capital tranche to absorb initial losses. This level of detail is crucial to understanding the strength of the financial vehicle being formed.
From the opacity of 2022 to institutional transparency
To appreciate this milestone, it is essential to compare it with the previous cycle. During the 2021-2022 bull market, crypto lending was dominated by platforms like Celsius Network and BlockFi, which managed deposits worth $15 billion at their peak. However, those structures lacked verifiable guarantees and operated with massive counterparty risk, leading to systemic bankruptcies during the “crypto winter.”
The quantitative difference today is staggering. While in 2022 collateral was used for remortgage (lending the same asset multiple times), Ledn’s current structure uses segregated custody and real-time price oracles that prevent the misuse of assets.
Impact on the Bitcoin Supply
This is where the news becomes structural analysis. Debt securitization is not just a financial product; it’s a supply management tool. By allowing miners and corporate treasuries to access dollars through ABS bonds, it eliminates the need to sell their BTC on exchanges to cover operating costs.
Historically, miners’ selling cycles have caused price corrections of between 15% and 25% during periods of low liquidity. If this ABS model scales to billions of dollars, we could see a permanent reduction in Bitcoin’s structural selling pressure, reinforcing its narrative as “digital gold” or a store of value.
A key shift in the concept of cryptocurrency lending
The structure of these bonds includes a “liquidation trigger” that activates if the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio exceeds 70%. In events of extreme volatility, such as the 12% drop recorded in January 2025, the system must be able to sell the collateral on secondary markets instantly.
Bitcoin’s current liquidity in the USD/BTC pair is sufficient to absorb sales of up to $500 million without causing a price slippage exceeding 2%. This validates why S&P awarded it an investment-grade rating, something unthinkable just two years ago.
From a macroeconomic perspective, Jefferies and S&P’s entry into this sector indicates that crypto lending is no longer seen as an anomaly, but as a productive asset class. If this $188 million experiment proves successful and resilient to volatility, it opens the door to:
- Crypto mortgages: Home loans where the collateral is Bitcoin instead of physical property
- Secondary debt markets: Pension funds buying crypto-backed bonds to obtain higher returns than Treasury bonds
- Hybrid finance: Full integration where the boundary between DeFi and TradFi disappears completely.
The fact that this is happening in a context of stabilized interest rates suggests that investors are actively seeking diversification in assets uncorrelated with traditional banking risk.
Ledn’s loan securitization is not just market news; it’s a sign that the global financial system is absorbing Bitcoin’s logic. The challenge now will be to demonstrate that this model can withstand a “black swan” event in the price of digital assets. If it succeeds, we will be witnessing the birth of the financial infrastructure of the next century.
