Crypto: Ledn Raises $188m In First Bitcoin-backed Loan Securitization:...
The Bitcoin lender reportedly packaged thousands of Bitcoin-backed consumer loans into rated bonds, giving investors a new way to take crypto‑linked risk without holding BTC.
Bitcoin-backed loan platform Ledn sold about $188 million of bonds tied to Bitcoin‑collateralized consumer loans into the mainstream asset‑backed securities (ABS) market, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
In a first-of-its-kind deal, one of the two tranches — the investment‑grade portion — was reportedly priced at a spread of about 335 basis points over a benchmark rate, implying that investors are demanding 3.35 percentage points in extra yield to hold crypto‑linked credit risk rather than conventional consumer ABS.
The deal is structured through Ledn Issuer Trust 2026‑1, which securitizes a pool of 5,441 short‑term, fixed‑rate balloon loans extended to 2,914 US borrowers, backed by 4,078.87 Bitcoin (BTC) held as collateral, according to S&P Global Ratings’ preliminary documentation on Feb. 9.
Balloon loans are structured with relatively small periodic payments and a large lump‑sum “balloon” payment at maturity, which keeps near‑term payments low but leaves a sizeable principal balance due at the end.
S&P assigned preliminary BBB‑ (sf) and B‑ (sf) ratings to the $160 million senior Class A notes and $28 million subordinated Class B notes, respectively.
Related: $25B crypto lending market now led by ‘transparent’ players: Galaxy
A BBB- rating is the lowest tier of investment-grade debt, reflecting an adequate capacity to meet financial commitments but higher vulnerability to adverse conditions than higher‑rated bonds, while B‑ sits in deep non‑investment‑grade “junk” territory, where default risk is materially higher.
Jefferies Financial Group acted as the sole structuring agent and bookrunner, as a major Wall Street dealer intermediated between institutional fixed‑income investors and this new form of crypto‑linked exposure.
Bitwise head of research Europe, Andre Dragosch, told Cointelegraph that the fact that Ledn was able to package these loans into a traditional ABS implied that BTC is “increasingly seen as safe and legit collateral by traditional financial institutions.”
Source: CoinTelegraph
