Business intelligence firm MicroStrategy said it will consider opportunities for yield generation on 95,643 “unencumbered” Bitcoin (BTC) held by its subsidiary MacroStrategy. In MicroStrategy’s report for the first quarter of 2022 released on Tuesday, the firm said it “may conservatively explore future yield generation opportunities on unencumbered MacroStrategy bitcoins” as a consideration following a $205 million BTC-collateralized loan issued by Silvergate Bank in March. As of March 31, MicroStrategy held a total of 129,218 BTC, which the firm reported had a carrying value of roughly $2.9 billion, reflecting cumulative impairment losses of more than $1 billion and an aggregate cost …

Florida-based ratings and research firm Weiss Ratings has fired out a warning over the risks of crypto mortgages amid the current economic climate in the United States. The company paid particular focus to Milo, a digital banking startup from Miami that offers 30-year mortgages backed by Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) or stablecoins as collateral. The firm requires zero down payments and its loan rates vary between 3.95% and 5.95%. In the Tuesday report, Weiss analyst Jon D. Markman urged caution with such mortgages, citing the poor performance of stocks and crypto this year, a U.S. housing bubble, rising interest rates …

The decentralized finance (DeFi) space has been rife with hacks, exploits and scams so far this year, with over $1.6 billion in crypto stolen from users, surpassing the total amount stolen in 2020 and 2021 combined. Analysis from blockchain security firm CertiK revealed the statistics on Monday showing the month of March having the most value stolen at $719.2 million, over $200 million more than what was stolen in all of 2020. The March figure is largely due to the Ronin Bridge exploit where attackers made off with over $600 million worth of crypto. We have seen $1.6B lost in …

Goldman Sachs has offered its first Bitcoin- (BTC)-backed loan, in a major step forward for institutional cryptocurrency adoption on Wall Street. A spokeswoman from Goldman told Bloomberg that the multinational investment bank had lent cash collateralized by Bitcoin owned by the borrower for the first time in Goldman Sachs’ history. She added that the deal was particularly interesting because of its structure and 24-hour risk management. Such a loan allows for a Bitcoin holder to borrow fiat currency such as the United States dollar by fronting up to their BTC as collateral to the bank. The underlying volatility of Bitcoin …

Blockchain real estate platform Propy has partnered with Abra to allow customers to obtain home loans using their cryptocurrency holdings, potentially widening the financial use cases of digital assets. Propy customers can now put up digital assets as collateral for their real estate purchases through Abra Borrow, a cryptocurrency lending and borrowing service. Crypto collateral pledged on Abra is used to borrow United States dollars that can then be applied to home purchases. The Propy blockchain records the entire transaction process, serving as the technical and legal framework for buyers and sellers. According to Propy, the blockchain records the transaction …

There’s a special bond between mothers and their sons. For “Alan,” a 28-year-old engineer who wished to remain anonymous, a Bitcoin (BTC) loan helped his mom to buy a house. Alan told Cointelegraph that he took out a Bitcoin-backed loan in 2021 — serendipitously, on his sister’s birthday — to gift his mom the tax-free money. She then used the funds to buy a house in North Yorkshire, England, while Alan kept his Bitcoin. Alan first used Bitcoin in 2012, learning it was a useful currency to buy things on the internet. He used the peer-to-peer (P2P) service LocalBitcoins — …

Loans based on cryptocurrencies have become a mainstay of the decentralized finance (DeFi) universe ever since the smart contract-based lending/borrowing platforms began offering the service to crypto users. The Ethereum network, the first blockchain that scaled the smart contract functionality, sees most of the total value locked (TVL) on DeFi protocols dominated by cryptocurrency lending platforms. According to data from DeFi Pulse, the top 4 of 10 DeFi protocols are lending protocols that account for $37.04 billion in TVL, just 49% of TVL of the entire DeFi market on the Ethereum blockchain. Ethereum leads in terms of being the most …

Major cryptocurrency loan company Nexo has officially launched a crypto-backed Mastercard card enabling users to pay for services with cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) without selling their crypto. Nexo has partnered with Mastercard and the peer-to-peer payment startup DiPocket to launch the Nexo Card, a crypto card allowing cardholders to use their crypto as collateral rather than selling it, the firm announced to Cointelegraph on Wednesday. The card is linked to a Nexo-provided, crypto-backed credit line allowing to use of multiple assets as collateral, including but not limited to Bitcoin, Ether (ETH) and the Tether (USDT) stablecoin. "The Nexo Card functions …

MicroStrategy CEO and Bitcoin permabull, Michael Saylor believes that traditional financial markets aren’t quite ready for Bitcoin-backed bonds. Saylor told Bloomberg on Tuesday, that he’d love to see the day come where Bitcoin-backed bonds are sold like mortgage-backed securities, but warned that, “the market is not quite ready for that right now. The next best idea was a term loan from a major bank.” MacroStrategy, a subsidiary of @MicroStrategy, has closed a $205 million bitcoin-collateralized loan with Silvergate Bank to purchase #bitcoin. $MSTR $SIhttps://t.co/QYw2ZgeE3U — Michael Saylor⚡️ (@saylor) March 29, 2022 The remarks come two days after MicroStrategy’s (MSTR) Bitcoin-specific …

MacroStrategy, a subsidiary of business intelligence firm MicroStrategy, said it will purchase Bitcoin after obtaining a multimillion dollar loan from Silvergate Bank. In a Tuesday announcement, MicroStrategy said Silvergate issued a $205 million loan “secured by certain Bitcoin held in MacroStrategy’s collateral account.” The firm's subsidiary MacroStrategy will be using the proceeds of the loan to purchase Bitcoin (BTC), pay fees and interest related to the loan, and handle general corporate expenses. “The SEN Leverage loan gives us an opportunity to further our position as the leading public company investor in Bitcoin,” said MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor. “Using the capital …

Crypto.com is reportedly giving users from countries restricted from its loan program until March 15 to repay their crypto loans. The firm updated the list of restricted countries to include the United States, United Kingdom and 38 others. Users from European nations such as Germany, Switzerland and the U.K. have all shared emails from the company regarding the loan closure date. It's worth noting that some of these users who do not have crypto loans on the platform have received the emails as well. According to the new policy, if users fail to repay their loans by March 15, their …

Digital asset lending platform Celsius has become the first pool delegate from the centralized finance market to deploy a crypto-centric lending service on Maple Finance, utilizing the latter’s smart contract and blockchain infrastructure to facilitate a $30 million pool to institutional investors. Celsius succeeds existing pool delegates BlockTower, Orthogonal Trading, Maven 11 and Alameda Research in partnering with Maple on such an endeavor. The introduction of wrapped Ether (wETH) is set to complement the existing accessibility to trade Circle’s native stablecoin, USD Coin (USDC), enabling investors to utilize the asset across an array of trading components, including staking, lending and …