Binance Labs has invested in cryptocurrency loans company Libra Credit who will offer fiat and cryptocurrency loans to BNB holders using their coins as collateral.
The latest venture by the investment arm of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, Binance, will take advantage of a growing demand for the liquidity of crypto-assets. Binance Labs is a social impact fund which incubates and invests in cryptocurrency and blockchain projects.
Libra Credit is branded as a decentralized digital asset financial services platform, and it has a primary focus on lending. Its initial coin offering (ICO) with the coin (LBA) ended May 5, 2018, having raised $26 million. Libra is planning to launch both a desktop lending platform and a mobile application for borrowers.
Cryptocurrency Loan Market Grows
This latest partnership is one of a growing number of cryptocurrency loan services appearing. The loans enable cryptocurrency investors to use their coins as collateral in the same way as a property is used in conventional borrowing. Lenders can still take advantage of increases in the value of their coins and retain final ownership but can borrow other currencies, including fiat, to use for further projects.
Earlier this week Mike Novogratz’s merchant bank Galaxy led a $50 million round of funding for the cryptocurrency lender BlockFi, which provides loans of up to $10 million against Bitcoin and Ethereum investments.
CoinLoan, an Estonian startup, also launched a loan service, this time connecting users who wish to become either lenders or borrowers and securing the transaction between matching and agreeing participants.
Bitcoinist interviewed P2P lending platform INLOCK back in June 2018, to understand how its platform allowed cryptocurrency investors to continue to HODL while also unlocking their funds.
Further Expansion From Binance
Binance is quickly expanding its massive share of the cryptocurrency market. Business Korea this week reported the exchange plans to enter the South Korean cryptocurrency market.
Despite a rocky start to 2018 for cryptocurrencies, Binance is on track to make net profits of up to $1 billion dollars USD this year. The disclosed exchange confirmed profits of $300 million in the first six months of 2018.
The cryptocurrency-backed loans market could be enormous, given the market capitalization of cryptocurrencies, and the few barriers for borrowers who often don’t need to provide the credit history and earnings information conventional lenders require.
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