Bitcoin lenders say institutions want crypto credit to look more like TradFi
Key takeaways
- “The moment you start trying to explain how any of this stuff works, they're just like, No...
- Across the panel, speakers repeatedly suggested that institutional finance and crypto-native finance remain fundamentally misaligned in their approaches to risk.
- “The most important thing to ask... is where is your Bitcoin stored,” said Adam Reeds, co-founder and CEO of Ledn.
At Consensus 2026 in Miami, Alexander Blume, founder and CEO of institutional bitcoin lender Two Prime, argued that the next stage of crypto credit growth will depend less on decentralized finance experimentation and more on standardization, transparency, and risk management.
“The moment you start trying to explain how any of this stuff works, they're just like, No... We'll pay more. Don't lose my money,” Blume said, referring to institutional borrowers evaluating crypto lending products that become difficult to defend during periods of market stress.
The comments reflected a broader post-2022 shift in crypto lending following the collapses of Celsius, Voyager, and BlockFi, when opaque leverage, aggressive rehypothecation, and weak risk controls triggered a wider credit crisis across the industry. In the years since, many institutional borrowers have moved away from complex DeFi structures in favor of products centered on transparent custody, standardized contracts, and clearly identifiable counterparties.