{"id":2206,"date":"2025-01-08T14:17:13","date_gmt":"2025-01-08T14:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/08\/ledn-remains-bitcoins-premier-borrowing-and-lending-platform\/"},"modified":"2025-01-08T14:17:13","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T14:17:13","slug":"ledn-remains-bitcoins-premier-borrowing-and-lending-platform","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/2025\/01\/08\/ledn-remains-bitcoins-premier-borrowing-and-lending-platform\/","title":{"rendered":"Ledn Remains Bitcoin\u2019s Premier Borrowing And Lending Platform"},"content":{"rendered":"

Company Name:<\/strong> Ledn<\/p>\n

Founders:<\/strong> Mauricio Di Bartolomeo and Adam Reeds<\/p>\n

Date Founded:<\/strong> September 2018<\/p>\n

Location of Headquarters:<\/strong> N\/A (Fully remote)<\/p>\n

Number of Employees:<\/strong> 51<\/p>\n

Website:<\/strong> https:\/\/ledn.io\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Public or Private?<\/strong> Private<\/p>\n

\u201cLending is the type of relationship where you value the return <\/em>of your assets more than the return <\/em>on your assets.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

This was Di Bartolomeo\u2019s answer when I asked him what has set Ledn<\/a>, a bitcoin and crypto borrowing and lending platform, apart from its competitors, including now defunct companies that offered similar services like BlockFi<\/a>, Celsius<\/a> and Voyager<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s no company in this space that has a better track record of returning your assets than Ledn,\u201d Di Bartolomeo told Bitcoin Magazine.<\/p>\n

Since its founding, Ledn has prioritized security and reliability. Di Bartolomeo and his co-founder, Adam Reeds, have not only wanted to win the trust of the traditional financial institutions with which Ledn interfaces but that of Ledn\u2019s global user base, some of whom are accessing financial services for the first time thanks to the company.<\/p>\n

And Di Bartolomeo\u2019s work is quite personal to him in part because he understands the importance of Bitcoin thanks to his firsthand experience with it in his home country of Venezuela.<\/p>\n

Di Bartolomeo\u2019s Bitcoin Journey<\/h2>\n

\u201cMy family found Bitcoin and started mining it in Venezuela in late 2014\/early 2015 in the middle of hyperinflation where basically it was illegal for them to buy or hold U.S. dollars or anything that would preserve value,\u201d recounted Di Bartolomeo.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I saw how they and other Venezuelans were using Bitcoin to opt out of their broken system, I thought to myself \u201cHow many people in the world live like this and how many people in the world are going to need this?\u201d And my answer was a number that I couldn\u2019t compute in my head,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Di Bartolomeo decided to begin working in the Bitcoin space soon after. He moved to Canada where he and Reeds began helping miners grow their operations. Di Bartolomeo recalled that these miners wanted to expand but didn\u2019t want to sell their bitcoin to do so.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey had bitcoin revenues and fiat expenses, and there was no real place for them to get any type of financing,\u201d said Di Bartolomeo. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe sought financing, but nobody would give us a loan. So, we decided to solve our own problem,” he added.<\/p>\n

“That was the genesis of Ledn.\u201d<\/p>\n

How Ledn Differentiated Itself<\/h2>\n

When Ledn was founded in 2018, only a few other services like it existed. However, there was a notable difference between Ledn and its competitors.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were other bitcoin-backed lenders in the market, but they required tokens,\u201d said Di Bartolomeo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was around the ICO era<\/a> and we saw Nexo<\/a> and Celsius come into the space with tokens. My view was that they were only using them to raise cash without selling off equity,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Di Bartolomeo and Reeds didn\u2019t want to issue a token, as they saw it as a questionable practice from a regulatory perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at finance at scale, immediately you think about compliance and regulation,\u201d said Di Bartolomeo. \u201cWe wanted to build a company that was able to sit in front of BlackRock or Goldman Sachs, heavily regulated banks, and say, \u2018Hey, I want to interact with you guys.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

What is more, Ledn also prioritized transparency. In 2021, it became one of the first major Bitcoin companies to issue a proof of reserves<\/a>, a system that allows anyone to audit Ledn\u2019s bitcoin holdings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re still the only lender operating in the U.S. or other highly-regulated markets that has this proof of reserves where every six months our clients can come and check it out,\u201d said Di Bartolomeo. \u201cWe’ve been doing this since before it was cool.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ledn also publishes a monthly Open Book Report<\/a> that breaks down Ledn\u2019s lending strategies.<\/p>\n

From early on, Di Bartolomeo believed that taking a buttoned-up and transparent approach would foster trust amongst Bitcoin enthusiasts, a group that lives by the \u201cdon\u2019t trust, verify<\/a>\u201d mantra, and his thesis has played out.<\/p>\n

Reducing Risks<\/h2>\n

Of the many products Ledn offers<\/a>, one is yield generation on bitcoin \u2014 the same type of product that caused the demise of BlockFi.<\/p>\n

However, Ledn approaches its version of this product differently than its former competitor did.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe generate Bitcoin yield on bitcoin primarily by lending it to market makers that arbitrage the BlockRock IBIT ETF and units of Coinbase spot,\u201d said Di Bartolomeo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese groups are price neutral. They don\u2019t have directional exposure. They\u2019re just closing price gaps and benefitting from volatility,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

BlockFi\u2019s approach was far riskier.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith BlockFi, there was a duration mismatch,\u201d explained Di Bartolomeo.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were taking open-term deposits, and they were deploying them into mining infrastructure that had five-year payback. What do you think is going to happen when somebody shows up before the five years are done?\u201d he added, alluding to the notion that what happened to BlockFi seemed inevitable.<\/p>\n

What is more, Ledn only deals in highly liquid assets like bitcoin (and ether, which they added in 2023), which helps alleviate asset liability mismatch risk.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith bitcoin, you always have people on both sides of the house with demand,\u201d said Di Bartolomeo.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you start supporting things like Shiba Inu or Dogecoin and people want to earn interest on those, you then have to turn that Dogecoin into something else, and you create asset liability mismatch in the process,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Di Bartolomeo also noted that all of Ledn\u2019s products are ring-fenced from one another.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you’re paying for a custody loan, you are not exposed to the credit risk of our other products,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is very similar to how traditional finance works, and it\u2019s something we do very differently as compared to our now defunct peers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing Competition<\/h2>\n

As more people begin to view bitcoin as \u201cpristine collateral<\/a>,\u201d more bitcoin borrowing and lending platforms are destined to pop up. Many already have.<\/p>\n

Centralized bitcoin borrowing and lending services like Salt<\/a> and Nexo remain competitors to Ledn, while institutional bitcoin financing services like Newmarket Capital\u2019s Battery Finance<\/a> are also poised to cut into Ledn\u2019s business. And services that enable users to borrow against their bitcoin in a non-custodial manner, including Debifi<\/a> and Lava<\/a>, may also increase their market share.<\/p>\n

Di Bartolomeo is aware of the competition but doesn\u2019t seem concerned. In fact, he believes that in such a market, the biggest winner will be the consumer, and he doesn\u2019t have any plans to change Ledn\u2019s strategy. Instead, he\u2019s looking to double down on what Ledn does best.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur sweet spot is going to be individuals or people who prioritize transparency, security of funds and compliance,\u201d said Di Bartolomeo.<\/p>\n

\u201cSafety, trust and transparency are what makes Ledn stand out. There is no other operator like us in this space with an equivalent track record as far as loans processed, years in the business and cycles survived,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis industry is volatile. You have to have the right expertise and the right set of values powering your team, and I think other companies would be hard pressed to demonstrate what we have over the time that we have. Will you be able to find something cheaper? Yes. Will that be riskier? Absolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fostering Financial Inclusion<\/h2>\n

One of the primary ways in which Ledn differs from traditional borrowing and lending platforms is that its rates don\u2019t differ based on the jurisdiction in which the lender or borrower is located.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis makes people feel very empowered because they know that whether they’re in Madrid or Medell\u00edn, they’re getting the same rate,\u201d said Di Bartolomeo.<\/p>\n

And Di Bartolomeo smiled from ear to ear as he discussed this point, as it seemed to remind him of why he got involved with Bitcoin in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of the things that makes me proudest about this business,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have people back in Latin America who’ve come to us to say we are the first loan they’ve ever been approved for. This is because all we look at is \u2018Did you complete KYC?\u2019; \u2018Are you a compliant citizen?\u2019; \u2018Do you have Bitcoin?,\u2019\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not \u2018Where do you live?\u2019; \u2018Who are your parents?\u2019; What\u2019s your skin color?\u2019 I love this aspect of Bitcoin and what we do.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Company Name: Ledn Founders: Mauricio Di Bartolomeo and Adam Reeds Date Founded: September 2018 Location of Headquarters: N\/A (Fully remote) Number of Employees: 51 Website: https:\/\/ledn.io\/ Public or Private? Private \u201cLending is the type of relationship where you value the return of your assets more than the return on your assets.\u201d This was Di Bartolomeo\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":2207,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2206","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bitcoin"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digkrypton.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}