Expobank, a commercial bank in Russia, has reportedly issued the country’s first ever loan backed by cryptocurrency. According to an Aug. 19 report by local news agency Kommersant, Expobank provided the credit through issuing an individual bank loan powered by Waves (WAVES) tokens. Waves CEO and founder Alexander Ivanov confirmed the news in a tweet, noting that the loan used Waves tokens as collateral. He told Cointelegraph that the firm is not currently working with any other banks in developing tools for securing bank loans with Waves open protocol. Ivanov added that Waves did not promote the protocol for this …

Decentralized finance (DeFi) loan protocol Aave has seen an explosion in the number of flash loans issued — with the daily value of said loans growing more than 1,000% since the start of July from $11 million to more than $130 million as of July 27. The record loan issuance has seen Aave ascend to rank as the fourth-largest DeFi protocol by locked funds, with nearly $392.9 million in capital currently tied to the project, according to DeFi Pulse. The value of Aave’s LEND token has also exploded by nearly 500% over less than two months, with LEND rallying into …

Blockchain firm Mainframe has acquired Sablier, an Ethereum-based protocol for real-time finance. Mainframe plans to integrate Sablier’s money streaming technology into a fixed-rate lending protocol and create tokenized debt markets akin to digital bonds. Crypto loans with lower collateralization Per the announcement, “cryptocurrency loans can create a healthy cycle of speculation, spending and monetary circulation.” Still, borrowers reportedly have low exposure in the current overcollateralized systems: “Crypto-backed loans often require collateralization rations of 150% or higher, and borrowers don’t fully actualize their spending power. With Mainframe's novel Guarantor Pools providing protection for collateral vaults, collateralization ratios can be much lower …

Celsius Network is expanding its partnership with fiat-to-crypto payments provider, Simplex, by enabling its users to buy more crypto with credit and debit cards. Celsius, a major crypto lending startup, now allows its users to purchase gold-backed stablecoin Tether Gold (XAUT) using debit and credit cards. Announcing the news on May 28, Celsius said that the minimum purchase amount for XAUT is $50, while the annual interest rate accounts for 4%. Tether Gold was rolled out for depositing on Celsius app earlier in May Alongside Tether Gold, the new integration with Simplex also unlocks credit and debit card purchases for …

The blockchain-based payment network Ripple recently added a job opening on its official website for a “Director of Product Management, Loans.” The description indicates that Ripple is working on a new loan product to help its customers with working capital loans. Working capital loans are loans companies take to financially support their everyday operations in the short term. A blockchain-based loan product could potentially shorten the time for companies to avail capital loans, reduce paperwork, and improve transparency and accountability between the involved parties. Considering Ripple’s wide reach across major financial institutions, this could be a huge benefit for companies …

The decentralized finance lending platform Maker, like many crypto participants, suffered losses during the price collapse of “Black Thursday” on March 12. The price of Ether (ETH) declined by about 50% within 24 hours, triggering opportunistic profiteering as the Maker system became swamped with a huge volume of liquidations. In the aftermath of the crisis, Maker recorded losses totaling 6.65 million Dai (about $6.65 million) and has been forced to make sweeping changes to its governance and auction parameters. The project also added the stablecoin USD Coin (USDC) to its collateral pool. Amid the losses incurred by the project, Maker …

The Celsius Network is the first major cryptocurrency lending platform that is profitable, according to its CEO and founder Alex Mashinsky. Cointelegraph interviewed Mashinsky to learn more about this achievement, how the latest market downturn has affected its business and his outlook on the industry. According to Mashinsky, the company was profitable in 2019 on a net income basis and in 2020 on a free cash flow basis. In March, Celsius Network is expected to post record revenues of over $2 million. Mashinsky explains that his company’s balance sheets are much more solid than of his competitors, “about 90% of …

Amid the ongoing growth of the cryptocurrency lending industry, major crypto wallet service Blockchain.com launches a new lending product for all users, not just institutions. After first launching an institutional crypto lending desk in August 2019, Blockchain.com is now rolling out its crypto lending service to all users across more than 180 countries, the United Kingdom-based firm announced to Cointelegraph on March 10. Borrow allows users to borrow Paxos Standard against Bitcoin at the launch The new lending product from Blockchain.com, dubbed Borrow, allows to users borrow Paxos Standard stablecoin (PAX) against Bitcoin (BTC) directly from the platform’s native cryptocurrency …

Cryptocurrency lending platform BlockFi has added support for cash on its platform, which enables customers to purchase crypto through wire transfers. The company revealed the new option in a press release on March 10, detailing that its users can now send wires transfers to BlockFi to buy digital currencies and earn up to 8.6% annual percentage yield. The wire transfer service is backed by financial services firm Silvergate and is available both domestically and internationally. BlockFi founder and CEO Zac Prince told Cointelegraph that, at the moment, Bitcoin (BTC) remains the most popular cryptocurrency on the platform and is followed …

As the cryptocurrency lending industry continues to grow, another major crypto company is getting into the business. BitGo, a crypto firm that claims to handle over 20% of all Bitcoin (BTC) transactions, is launching an institutional-level crypto lending service on March 5. The debut of BitGo’s lending feature comes after a several-month-long private beta test. A service similar to traditional lending business Nick Carmi, the head of financial services at BitGo, emphasized that the new crypto lending product was developed with the goal of creating a lending business that is similar to lending services in the traditional financial markets. The …

Hours after experiencing a major denial of service attacks (DDoS) attack, Bitfinex has announced it repaid another part of the loan facility to Tether. In a Feb. 28 blog post, Bitfinex revealed that the cryptocurrency exchange repaid $100 million of outstanding loan facility to major stablecoin operator Tether (USDT). Similarly to a previous repayment in July 2019, Bitfinex processed the transaction in fiat via wire transfer wired to Tether's bank account. According to the post, the payment has been made “all on account of principal,” while interest on all amounts due under the facility agreement has been prepaid up to …

Celsius Network reports to have more than doubled its interest payments in the three months since its last disclosure. This is one more signal of the continuous growth of the crypto lending industry, as decentralized finance (DeFi) operations attract more funds. As per its Feb. 20 report, Celsius paid over $11 million worth of Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) and other cryptocurrencies as total interest income. This is an increase of 120% from its $5 million figure reported on Nov. 12, 2019. The company is managing $730 million in customer deposits and loan collateral, which is an increase of 62% from …