Bitstamp, a cryptocurrency exchange based in Luxembourg, has launched a lending service for customers in Europe, Hong Kong and the UAE. The service offers loans for Bitcoin, Ethereum, USDC, USDT, XRP, BCH, LINK, LTC and APE, which are highly capitalised. However, US and UK residents are not allowed to use this product. The annual interest rate on these loans is 4.4%, payments are made daily and borrowers need to provide 100% collateral in stablecoins.
The platform was implemented in partnership with Tesseract, which creates a legal entity to hold clients' loans and assets separately from other platform partners.
According to Bitstamp CEO Jean-Baptiste Graftio, "We are rebuilding crypto landing from scratch - from impenetrable [...] to radically transparent and accessible.
The Exchange will issue regular reports assessing management performance. The documents will contain details related to product returns and potential risks, such as loan portfolio efficiency and focus measures, borrower risk profiles and collateral levels.
BlockFi and Celsius ceased operations in 2022, while Genesis Global Capital suspended operations.
Bitstamp received approval to operate as a digital asset provider in Spain in November 2022, and received similar approval from its Italian regulator in July 2022.
