Crypto Biz: Onchain lending ramps up, driven by institutional activity
Lending platforms are seeing a significant increase in loans processed this year. According to Ledn, a firm offering decentralized lending and savings, it registered a $1.65 billion increase compared with the same period last year.
In the third quarter of 2024, the company processed over $437 million in digital asset loans to institutions, an increase of 14% from the previous quarter. This growth is part of a wider trend of more institutions exploring digital asset-backed loans due to tighter monetary policies and intense competition for access to dollar funding.
“We saw a very healthy jump in institutional demand in July, which has remained steady since then,” said John Glover, chief investment officer at Ledn. “Institutional borrowing demand has also been fairly consistent with the overall ETF demand, where there was a similar jump in July.”
Since its launch in 2018, the company claims to have facilitated over $6.5 billion in loans across both retail and institutional markets. The combined growth in loans for the year, for both retail and institutional sectors, totaled $1.65 billion.
According to data from DefiLlama, the total value locked on lending protocols was $31.9 billion as of Oct. 16. 
This week’s Crypto Biz also explores Tether’s plan to lend to traders, Grayscale’s list of potential crypto products, Ripple’s RLUSD partners and Thailand’s SCB move to stablecoins.
Tether mulls lending to commodity traders: Report
Tether Holdings is considering lending to commodities trading companies as the stablecoin issuer looks to deploy billions of dollars in profits. The stablecoin issuer has reportedly discussed lending opportunities with several commodity trading firms. According to a July 31 announcement, Tether saw record-breaking profits of $5.2 billion in the first half of 2024 and a larger-than-ever stockpile of United States government bonds. The company has been reinvesting some of its profits in adjacent industries, including sustainable energy, Bitcoin mining, data, artificial intelligence infrastructure, peer-to-peer telecommunications technology, neurotech and education.
Grayscale puts DOGE, Worldcoin on list of 35 potential crypto products
Crypto asset manager Grayscale has added 35 crypto altcoins, including Dogecoin, Worldcoin, Pyth and Rune, to a list of assets that are “under consideration” for future investment products. In an Oct. 10 blog post, Grayscale broke down its list of prospective tokens into five primary categories: Currencies, smart contract platforms, financials, culture and utilities. Most of the newly considered assets were tokens for smart-contract platforms, with the firm picking a mix of networks, including alternative layer-1 blockchains Aptos (APT) and Sei (SEI), data availability network Celestia (TIA) and Ethereum scaling solution Mantle (MNT). Grayscale also listed the tokens of several other networks, including Arbitrum (ARB), Cosmos (ATOM), Polygon (MATIC), Toncoin (TON) and Tron (TRX) as assets that are potentially worthy of becoming investment products.
Ripple announces exchange partners for RLUSD stablecoin
Ripple announced the exchange partners for its upcoming dollar-denominated stablecoin, Ripple USD (RLUSD). The blockchain infrastructure provider has partnered with cryptocurrency exchanges and platforms, including Uphold, Bitstamp, Bitso, MoonPay, Independent Reserve, CoinMENA and Bullish, to facilitate the distribution of the stablecoin. Ripple’s new stablecoin aims to become the “gold standard for enterprise-grade stablecoins,” according to Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse.
Thailand’s oldest bank announces stablecoin remittance services
Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), Thailand’s oldest commercial bank, recently revealed it will begin offering stablecoin cross-border payment and remittance services to its clients in collaboration with fintech company Lightnet. Adding support for stablecoin services will allow clients to send or accept cross-border transactions 24 hours a day, seven days a week — while reducing transaction costs. These reduced transaction fees make stablecoins an attractive option for those receiving remittances from higher-value currencies.
Before you go: The number of Ethereum validators has surged by over 30% in the past year, reaching over one million for the first time in June 2024, driven by strong institutional adoption of cryptocurrencies.
Crypto Biz is your weekly pulse on the business behind blockchain and crypto, delivered directly to your inbox every Thursday.