Bitcoin-backed mortgage platform Ledn offered about $188 million of bonds tied to Bitcoin‑collateralized shopper loans into the mainstream asset‑backed securities (ABS) market, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing individuals aware of the matter.
In a first-of-its-kind deal, one of many two tranches — the funding‑grade portion — was reportedly priced at a variety of about 335 foundation factors over a benchmark fee, implying that traders are demanding 3.35 proportion factors in additional yield to carry crypto‑linked credit score threat somewhat than standard shopper ABS.
The deal is structured by way of Ledn Issuer Belief 2026‑1, which securitizes a pool of 5,441 brief‑time period, fastened‑fee balloon loans prolonged to 2,914 US debtors, backed by 4,078.87 Bitcoin (BTC) held as collateral, according to S&P International Scores’ preliminary documentation on Feb. 9.
How the construction and scores stack up
Balloon loans are structured with comparatively small periodic funds and a big lump‑sum “balloon” cost at maturity, which retains close to‑time period funds low however leaves a sizeable principal steadiness due on the finish.
S&P assigned preliminary BBB‑ (sf) and B‑ (sf) scores to the $160 million senior Class A notes and $28 million subordinated Class B notes, respectively.
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A BBB- ranking is the bottom tier of investment-grade debt, reflecting an sufficient capability to fulfill monetary commitments however larger vulnerability to adversarial circumstances than larger‑rated bonds, whereas B‑ sits in deep non‑funding‑grade “junk” territory, the place default threat is materially larger.
Jefferies Monetary Group acted as the only real structuring agent and bookrunner, as a serious Wall Avenue vendor intermediated between institutional fastened‑earnings traders and this new type of crypto‑linked publicity.
BTC more and more seen as reputable collateral
Bitwise head of analysis Europe, Andre Dragosch, instructed Cointelegraph that the truth that Ledn was in a position to package deal these loans into a conventional ABS implied that BTC is “more and more seen as secure and legit collateral by conventional monetary establishments.”
He highlighted main banks like JPMorgan offering BTC-backed loans to clients as an additional indication of this. “Bitcoin is more and more being built-in into conventional finance as the brand new pristine collateral,” he mentioned.
Jinsol Bok, analysis lead at 4 Pillars international crypto analysis firm, instructed Cointelegraph that this implies liquidity now not wants to stay locked up and “can as a substitute be expanded into new lending,” including that the scale of the BTC-collateralized lending market might “develop far past its present stage sooner or later.”
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He mentioned that in contrast to actual property mortgages, BTC-collateralized loans may very well be transparently tracked onchain and liquidated in a programmable method. “For that reason, I consider that the dangers related to ABS on this context don’t should be excessively overstated.”
What traders are shopping for
Asset‑backed securities are bonds funded by swimming pools of loans, so traders in Ledn’s notes don’t personal Bitcoin (BTC) immediately.
As an alternative, they tackle credit score and structural threat to a pool of BTC‑secured loans whose efficiency will depend on borrower repayments and the lender’s capability to liquidate collateral throughout market stress.
“These loans usually have a low default fee as a result of they have a tendency to have low LTV [loan-to-value] ratios and are effectively capitalized with BTC,” Dragosch mentioned.
Based in 2018, Ledn says it has funded over $9.5 billion in loans thus far in over 100 international locations. The corporate acquired a strategic investment from Tether, the issuer of the USDt (USDT) stablecoin, in November 2025.
Cointelegraph reached out to Ledn for remark however had not acquired a response by publication time.
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