Ledn processed $1.16 billion in loans during first half of year as bitcoin's price rose

Crypto lending platform Ledn announced that during the first half of this year, it processed $1.16 billion in digital asset loans, which was mostly driven by institutional activity.

"Institutional loans amounted to $969 million," Ledn said in a statement Thursday. "This was spurred by the approval of various spot Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. and the subsequent rally in BTC price. These developments allowed Ledn to process several hundred million in institutional loans to ETF market makers."

The price of bitcoin has risen to nearly $65,000 as of Thursday, according to The Block Price Page, from about $44,000 at the beginning of the year.

In May, Ledn said it had processed more than $690 million in loans.

While accounting for only a sliver of its overall business, Ledn said its retail lending division has experienced growth so far this year. In Q2, Ledn said it processed $85 million in retail loans, compared to $65.5 million in Q1.

"This significant lending volume reflects a growing trend of investors taking out bitcoin and Ethereum-backed loans to access capital to take advantage of investment opportunities while preserving the growth potential of the underlying collateral assets," Ledn also said in its statement.

Ledn said it vets institutions using a "rigorous due diligence process." Focusing primarily on bitcoin, the company managed to survive the carnage of 2022 that dramatically affected other crypto lending firms.