The Crypto Lending arm of Genesis Global Trading on Thursday announced that it has written $425 million worth of loans to clients in the first quarter of 2019.
Launched in March 2018, Genesis Capital has handed out $1.53 billion worth of loans in total. The company specified that its outstanding loans surged by 17 percent from the end of 2018 to touch $181 million by the end of last month.
BIG news from Genesis Capital ->
+ Over $1 billion in crypto loans originated to date + $500 million in loans originated in Q4 alone + Launch of USD loans secured by crypto assets (borrow USD against your crypto holdings) https://t.co/i0el9dDw99 — Barry Silbert (@barrysilbert) January 30, 2019
The firm's books are dominated by 68 percent Bitcoin-denominated loans whereas XRP and Ether make up 6.7 percent and 3.6 percent respectively.
The New York-based crypto company also pointed out that unlike long-term bank loans, its crypto loans are paid out over an average period of six weeks.
“We expect more new entrants into the marketplace, and lending rates to correspondingly decrease. But since this space is still so new, I think the strong level of growth will continue for quite some time,” Michael Moro, chief executive fo the company, told Reuters.
Strong short selling trends
Genesis Capital’s client base is dominated by institutional borrowers including hedge funds and other trading firms which hedge on the digital currency prices. In the Q1 2019 report, the firm also projected the trend of digital asset prices and the demand for crypto loans in the market.
For ETH and LTC, the trend was very prominent as the borrowing amount drastically went up with a slump in their value. However, this trend does not hold up for each and every cryptocurrency. For instance, similar correlations cannot be projected for Bitcoin loan volumes and its price.
The company revealed that it is also expanding its offerings to include borrowings in fiat currencies. Started in Q4 2018, its new cash lending business in USD has already captured 10 percent of the active loans of the company.
