Crypto-Backed Loans

Crypto-backed loans ranked on whether your bitcoin stays yours if the lender fails, who sets the liquidation price and how long you really get, whether you can compute the total cost before you apply, and which entity becomes your creditor under which licence.

13providers tracked

5ranked (methodology v2026.11.1)

12 November 2026Ranking snapshot

29 September 2026oldest read · due 13 Nov

Independent. Evidence-based.We rank with a published method and sourced evidence. No one can pay to rank.How it works

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5 providers match your requirements

Out of 5 ranked providers. 0 excluded.

What this ranks

Ranked here: custodial crypto-backed loans, where you post BTC or ETH that a company holds, and borrow fiat or stablecoins against it at interest instead of selling.Not ranked here: DeFi money markets, exchange margin, loans whose collateral never leaves your control, undercollateralised credit, deposit products, crypto cards, property-secured loans and NFT-collateralised lending.5 of the 13 assessed are ranked; 8 were turned away by name. Who, and whyRequirements narrow the list; they never change a published ChainChoice Score. How the ranking works

Figure

How Figure was chosen

Wins the weighted total without leading any single criterion

Figure Markets' binding Terms of Service keep title to pledged crypto with the borrower and bar its sale

78 out of 100published score, #1 of all 5 worldwide

Evidence

High

4/4 criteria scored, with 4 dated sources quoted.

Lender of record and lending licenceMargin call and forced sale

Why it leads

Figure is 3 points ahead of Ledn, mainly because it scores higher on its margin call and forced sale and its lender of record and lending licence.
Ahead of Ledn on margin call and forced sale (+3.2 points) and lender of record and lending licence (+2.2 points)
Provider states broad availability

Tradeoff

Computable cost before you apply: 2 points below the best in this ranking

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Ledn publishes its USD loan agreement

75 out of 100

The longest-running US crypto-backed lender

64 out of 100

Nexo's Credit Line is

53 out of 100

A Florida NMLS-licensed direct lender

52 out of 100

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See key differences in features, fees, security and more.

Computable cost before you apply

Can you compute your total cost, at your tier, before you apply?

22% of the published criteria weight. Scored 0–10 from the published evidence; the order below is by this criterion, then the published ranking.

Provider	Computable cost before you apply (0–10)	ChainChoice Score
Ledn	7	75
Milo	7	52
Figure	5	78
SALT Lending	5	64
Nexo	3	53

Lender of record and lending licence

Which entity actually becomes your creditor, and does a register say it may lend?

18% of the published criteria weight. Scored 0–10 from the published evidence; the order below is by this criterion, then the published ranking.

Provider	Lender of record and lending licence (0–10)	ChainChoice Score
Figure	7	78
SALT Lending	7	64
Ledn	5	75
Milo	5	52
Nexo	2	53

Collateral title and reuse

If the lender fails, is it your bitcoin or theirs — and what may they do with it before then?

34% of the published criteria weight. Scored 0–10 from the published evidence; the order below is by this criterion, then the published ranking.

Provider	Collateral title and reuse (0–10)	ChainChoice Score
Figure	5	78
Ledn	5	75
Milo	4	52
SALT Lending	1	64
Nexo	1	53

Margin call and forced sale

Who sets the price that liquidates you, how long do you really get, and can they sell without telling you?

26% of the published criteria weight. Scored 0–10 from the published evidence; the order below is by this criterion, then the published ranking.

Provider	Margin call and forced sale (0–10)	ChainChoice Score
Figure	6	78
SALT Lending	6	64
Ledn	4	75
Milo	4	52
Nexo	1	53

All 4 published criteria

Every ranked row’s score on each criterion, in the published order. Choose a column to order by it.

	Provider					ChainChoice Score
1	Figure	5	6	5	7	78
2	Ledn	5	4	7	5	75
3	SALT Lending	1	6	5	7	64
4	Nexo	1	1	3	2	53
5	Milo	4	4	7	5	52

How this ranking works

How firm the #1 is, the per-criterion arithmetic behind each score, who pays ChainChoice, and which crypto-backed loans were assessed and left out.

FirmThis verdict holds under every one-point re-read

See the arithmetic

Every published criterion was moved up and down by one point and the ranking re-run. The same product came first each time. The published rankings file

Why this score4 published criteria · leads 3 of 4

Published criterionWtScore, and the best hereGap out of 10Pts

If the lender fails, is it your bitcoin or theirs — and what may they do with it before then?8.2·55.4

Who sets the price that liquidates you, how long do you really get, and can they sell without telling you?6.2·65.0

Can you compute your total cost, at your tier, before you apply?5.3−253.5

Which entity actually becomes your creditor, and does a register say it may lend?4.3·74.0

Σ methodology points18.0/32

Each bar is the score on that criterion’s own 0–10 scale, never rescaled to the pool. The dark line is the best any product here reached on that axis. Wt is the most the criterion can add to the 86-point weighted total. Pts is weight × score × 32; the sum is the methodology score, and each weighted point behind the leader costs 2.6 on the displayed score. how these are weighted

Why it ranks first

Why Figure leads this category right now

Figure Markets' binding Terms of Service keep title to pledged crypto with the borrower and bar its sale, loan or hypothecation unless the borrower instructs it, in a per-loan wallet partition — but Figure's 2025 annual report on Form 10-K says the loan collateral "is in the Company’s control" and that the Company "has the ability to rehypothecate, stake, lend or otherwise use" it, and only that it "does not have a practice" of doing so; no Figure crypto-backed loan agreement is public, so the borrower's insolvency rank is unstated. Strongest on “Which entity actually becomes your creditor, and does a register say it may lend?” (7/10): Figure's licences page names Figure Lending LLC (NMLS ID 1717824) with state licence numbers, effective dates and named regulators, including California Finance Lenders Law License 60DBO-81967; the table is captioned for the Personal Loan, and New York website authorisation is pending. Weakest on “If the lender fails, is it your bitcoin or theirs — and what may they do with it before then?” (5/10): Figure Markets' Terms of Service keep title with the borrower and bar sale, loan or hypothecation of wallet assets unless the borrower instructs it, in a per-loan wallet partition, but Figure's 2025 annual report on Form 10-K says the loan collateral "is in the Company’s control" and that the Company "has the ability to rehypothecate, stake, lend or otherwise use" it, while it "does not have a practice" of doing so; no Figure crypto-backed loan agreement is public, so the borrower's insolvency rank is unstated. Published price: Rate card, verbatim from https://www.figure.com/crypto-backed-loan/ (HTTP 200, 489,319 bytes, fetched 2026-09-29; the strings sit in the page's embedded content data): "12.62% APR (APR includes interest plus applicable fees such as the 1% origination fee)."…

Best for

Lender of record and lending licence — 7/10

Main tradeoff

Read 11 November 2026: Figure's product page promises your collateral "will never be rehypothecated", but Figure's own 2025 annual report (Form 10-K) says the loan collateral "is in the Company’s control" and that the Company "has the ability to rehypothecate, stake, lend or otherwise use" it. It says only that it "does not have a practice" of doing so: a stated practice, not a prohibition.

Verify before signup

Rate card, verbatim from https://www.figure.com/crypto-backed-loan/ (HTTP 200, 489,319 bytes, fetched 29 September 2026; the strings sit in the page's embedded content data): "12.62% APR (APR includes interest plus applicable fees such as the 1% origination fee)." and "Available interest rates for Figure's Crypto-Backed Loan are 8.91% (9.999% APR) at 50% LTV or 11.50% (12.62% APR) up to 75%." Representative example on the same page: "a borrower receives a Crypto Backed Loan at 50% LTV of $10,000 for a term of 12 months, with an interest rate of 8.91% and a 1% origination fee of $100, for an APR of 9.999%. In this example, the borrower will receive $10,000 and will make 12 monthly payments of $74.25." Minimum: "Crypto Loans starts at a minimum of $5,000, subject to state and jurisdiction-specific legal limitations." The same file's structured data (JSON-LD) still carries an older card: "at a fixed interest rates of 9.9% at 50% or below or 12.4% up to 75%" and "or opt to defer interest for a fee." Disposition cost, https://www.figure.com/faqs/crypto-backed-loans/ (fetched 29 September 2026): "A 2% liquidation fee is applicable in certain regions, which is disclosed in your loan offer documents when a CBL is taken out." Default path, https://www.figure.com/liquidation-protection-disclosures/ (fetched 29 September 2026): borrowers are "opted into an interest-deferral feature" by default and "Accrued interest continues to compound during the deferral period"; the optional Liquidation Protection "Protection Fee" carries no number on any page read. Unchanged from 19 August 2026.

Recommendation summary

What should decide this category

While the loan is open, who holds the bitcoin — and does the contract let them re-pledge or lend it out?

At a margin call, who decides, how much notice do you get, and who sells?

Can you compute the total cost from published numbers before you apply, or only after a call?

Quick picks

Strong options in this category

Start with the lead choice first, then use the shortlist only if you still need a challenger or stronger fit for a specific setup.

Best overall

Figure

Best for: Lender of record and lending licence — 7/10

If the lender fails, is it your bitcoin or theirs — and what may they do with it before then? · weight 34%5/10Who sets the price that liquidates you, how long do you really get, and can they sell without telling you? · weight 26%6/10Can you compute your total cost, at your tier, before you apply? · weight 22%5/10Which entity actually becomes your creditor, and does a register say it may lend? · weight 18%7/10

Quick pick

Ledn

Ledn publishes its USD loan agreement, and the agreement says title to your bitcoin passes to Ledn, that Ledn may pledge it onward, that you rank as an unsecured creditor, and that you still owe the shortfall after a forced sale. Strongest on “Can you compute your total cost, at your tier, before you apply?” (7/10): Ledn's loans page prints a five-rung APR table by loan size, from 11.49% under $250,000 to 9.25% above $2,000,000, and states no early-repayment penalty; the calculator shows 9.99% for the top rung. Its public loan agreement states simple daily interest on a 365-day year but leaves every money field blank. Weakest on “Who sets the price that liquidates you, how long do you really get, and can they sell without telling you?” (4/10): Ledn's public loan agreement leaves the margin-call and liquidation LTVs as blank placeholders; the 70% call and 80% liquidation appear only on the product page. The collateral price is 'determined by Lender in its sole discretion', the cure is 'immediately', and the borrower owes any deficiency after a sale. Published price: Rate card, verbatim from https://ledn.io/bitcoin-backed-loans (HTTP 200, 186,289 bytes, server-rendered HTML, fetched 2026-09-29; the page script later overwrites these figures from a Ledn rates API that returned HTTP 403 to us).

Best for: Computable cost before you apply — 7/10

If the lender fails, is it your bitcoin or theirs — and what may they do with it before then? · weight 34%5/10Who sets the price that liquidates you, how long do you really get, and can they sell without telling you? · weight 26%4/10Can you compute your total cost, at your tier, before you apply? · weight 22%7/10Which entity actually becomes your creditor, and does a register say it may lend? · weight 18%5/10

Quick pick

SALT Lending

The longest-running US crypto-backed lender (since 2016) and the only one in this pool that publishes a real two-axis rate card (LTV tier x term), an explicit zero-fee schedule and a 26-row lending-licence table (25 states + DC) with numbers and Active status — sitting on top of a Terms of Use that grants the lender an express, unbounded right to 'repledge, sell or otherwise transfer or use' the borrower's collateral, a marketing page that flatly denies rehypothecation, an unpublished Loan and Security Agreement that governs over both, and SALT's own disclosure that it paused platform withdrawals on 15 November 2022 and had to have its California lending licence reinstated under a DFPI consent order effective 15 January 2025. Strongest on “Which entity actually becomes your creditor, and does a register say it may lend?” (7/10): SALT's licences page lists 26 Active lending rows for SALT Lending LLC (NMLS 1711910), 25 states plus D.C.; its Where We Lend page offers personal loans in 18 further US states and in Brazil, Portugal, Switzerland, the UAE and New Zealand with no lending licence named for them. Weakest on “If the lender fails, is it your bitcoin or theirs — and what may they do with it before then?” (1/10): SALT's Terms of Use keep title with the borrower under a security interest but grant 'the lender’s right to repledge, sell or otherwise transfer or use Stored Coins', while the personal-loan page says 'No Rehypothecation'; the loan agreement is private, and SALT runs an earn book with no ring-fence. Published price: Rate card, verbatim from https://saltlending.com/rates-and-fees/ (HTTP 200, 107,531 bytes, loaded anonymously 2026-09-29), unchanged from 2026-08-19: "30% LTV Conservative 7.49% APR 8.24% APR - fixed 3 yrs 8.49% APR - fixed 5 yrs"; "50% LTV Standard 8.75% APR…

Best for: Lender of record and lending licence — 7/10

If the lender fails, is it your bitcoin or theirs — and what may they do with it before then? · weight 34%1/10Who sets the price that liquidates you, how long do you really get, and can they sell without telling you? · weight 26%6/10Can you compute your total cost, at your tier, before you apply? · weight 22%5/10Which entity actually becomes your creditor, and does a register say it may lend? · weight 18%7/10

Quick pick

Nexo

Nexo's Credit Line is not a secured loan: the binding agreement transfers legal title of your bitcoin to Nexo on deposit, the borrower irrevocably waives any secured claim in Nexo's insolvency, and liquidation may happen without notice against a threshold Nexo publishes nowhere. Strongest on “Can you compute your total cost, at your tier, before you apply?” (3/10): Nexo's borrow page says 'Rates start at 1.9% per year.' while its US page says 0.9%, and the floor depends on a loyalty tier with no published tier-to-rate table; the fee schedule prices repayment and liquidation, and the rate is variable at Nexo's discretion with no statutory cost table. Weakest on “If the lender fails, is it your bitcoin or theirs — and what may they do with it before then?” (1/10): Nexo's Terms of Service transfer title to collateral on deposit, even with no credit drawn, and make the borrower irrevocably waive any priority or secured claim in Nexo's insolvency; custodians are named only on a security page, and Earn assets may move into the credit wallet with no ring-fence. Published price: Rate floor, verbatim from https://nexo.com/borrow (HTTP 200, 793,213 bytes, 2026-09-29): "Rates start at 1.9% per year." beside "Get Platinum tier on arrival — Nexo’s best yields and lowest borrowing rates for 30 days." and "Rates are subject to change and…

Best for: Computable cost before you apply — 3/10

If the lender fails, is it your bitcoin or theirs — and what may they do with it before then? · weight 34%1/10Who sets the price that liquidates you, how long do you really get, and can they sell without telling you? · weight 26%1/10Can you compute your total cost, at your tier, before you apply? · weight 22%3/10Which entity actually becomes your creditor, and does a register say it may lend? · weight 18%2/10

Considered and not ranked

8 products we looked at and left out

A shortlist is only honest if it says who it turned away. Each of these was assessed against the same published criteria as the ranked table and excluded for a stated reason — not overlooked.

We assessed 13 products here and rank 5 — 38% of what we looked at. That share is of the products we assessed, not of the category: how many exist is not something we can count, so we do not claim a number for it.

DeFi money markets, BY NAME: Aave, Compound, Morpho, Spark, Euler, Venus, Kamino and Fluid — every one of the eight already ranked in lending_borrowingExchange- and broker-branded credit where the collateral goes into a public lending protocol, or where the borrowed amount cannot leave the venue: Coinbase Bitcoin-backed loans (cbBTC posted to a Morpho market), Binance Margin, Bybit, OKX and Kraken margin lines, and any front end over Aave, Morpho or Spark· Ranked elsewhereLoans where the collateral never leaves the borrower's control, BY NAME: Firefish, Debifi, Hodl Hodl Lend, Liquidium, and every DLC-, PSBT- or 2-of-2-based bitcoin loanUndercollateralised and underwritten institutional credit already ranked in Private Credit: Maple, Clearpool, Goldfinch, Centrifuge, Pareto, Huma Finance, Kasu FinanceThe EARN and yield side of the same brands: Nexo Earn, Ledn Growth Accounts, SALT's interest-bearing product, and every deposit product on a lender's balance sheet· Ranked elsewhereThe card, not the loan: the Nexo Card, Crypto.com and Wirex card products and every crypto-backed credit or debit card line· Ranked elsewhereLoans whose primary lien is on real property or another off-chain asset: crypto-collateralised mortgages and HELOCs (Milo, Figure home-equity products)NFT-collateralised lending, already ranked in nft_lending

What this ranking does not assess

Control failure: a key or vote changes the rules, freezes or mints.
Liveness failure: the operator stops, censors you or loses data.
Custody failure: whoever holds the assets loses or withholds them.
Execution failure: you get a worse price, later, or nothing.
Exit failure: you cannot get out at par, on time, or with what is yours.
Information failure: the number is wrong or bought, or your data leaks.

These can still cost you money here; the ranking does not measure them, so a high place says nothing about them. Which criterion scores each family, and why the others do not apply, is in /data/risk-coverage.json.

How this ranking is built

Ranked on four questions

If the lender fails, is it your bitcoin or theirs — and what may they do with it before then? · 34%
Who sets the price that liquidates you, how long do you really get, and can they sell without telling you? · 26%
Can you compute your total cost, at your tier, before you apply? · 22%
Which entity actually becomes your creditor, and does a register say it may lend? · 18%

Data checked Sep 2026 · Independent rankings · We show our work

Reviewed 29 September 2026Next review by 13 November 2026Published 19 August 2026Methodology v2026.11.1

How this page is reviewed

Reviewed means every product ranked on this page was read against its sources on or after that date; every ranked category is re-read at least every 45 days. Models research, extract and parse. A deterministic engine ranks. Every quote passes an adversarial refute pass.

Accountable for this review: Mathias Siemonsmeier, Founder.

How we review · Review calendar · Corrections log · How we make money

Direct answer

What is the best crypto-backed loan in 2026?

Figure ranks #1 overall for crypto-backed loans on ChainChoice. Figure Markets' binding Terms of Service keep title to pledged crypto with the borrower and bar its sale, loan or hypothecation unless the borrower instructs it, in a per-loan wallet partition — but Figure's 2025 annual report on Form 10-K says the loan collateral "is in the Company’s control" and that the Company "has the ability to rehypothecate, stake, lend or otherwise use" it, and only that it "does not have a practice" of doing so; no Figure crypto-backed loan agreement is public, so the borrower's insolvency rank is unstated. It holds that rank under an affiliate-blind methodology scored across 4 published, weighted criteria — the code that ranks providers physically cannot read affiliate payouts (CI-enforced), so a payout can't move a rank. The verdict re-computes on every fee change, incident, or regulatory action; the full reasoning and the audit receipt are under Methodology.

How you can lose money here, and what the ranking scores

Oracle failure: a wrong price or outcome liquidates or settles a position.
Scored by Who sets the price that liquidates you, how long do you really get, and can they sell without telling you? · 26% (Figure 6/10, Ledn 4/10, SALT Lending 6/10)
Insolvency failure: the firm or issuer that owes you cannot pay.
Scored by If the lender fails, is it your bitcoin or theirs — and what may they do with it before then? · 34% (Figure 5/10, Ledn 5/10, SALT Lending 1/10)
Regulatory failure: no licence where you are, or a forced market exit.
Scored by Which entity actually becomes your creditor, and does a register say it may lend? · 18% (Figure 7/10, Ledn 5/10, SALT Lending 7/10)

Not assessed by this ranking: Control failure, Liveness failure, Custody failure, Execution failure, Exit failure, Information failure. A high place says nothing about these; the Methodology tab says what each means.

Also scored, as cost, quality or a summary of several families: Can you compute your total cost, at your tier, before you apply? (22%).

FAQs

5 questions readers ask before choosing crypto-backed loans.

Frequently asked

Questions people ask before choosing crypto-backed loans

Is my bitcoin still mine while the loan is open?

That is the whole question, and it carries 34 of the 100 points here. It is answered by the loan agreement, not the landing page — and on this page the two disagree more often than not. Two of the five lenders grant themselves an express right to re-pledge, sell or otherwise deal with the borrower's coin in the binding document while their marketing pages deny it, which is why both score 1 out of 10. Read the agreement, and if there is no loan agreement to read, that is the answer.

Why does nobody score above 6 out of 10?

Because the category is graded on documents that bind the lender, and only 8 of the 20 scored cells rest on one — the other 12 rest on marketing pages, FAQs and blog posts. Exactly one lender, Ledn, scores the heaviest criterion against a document whose own URL calls it a loan agreement. The pool mean is 4.58 and the leader is 5.44, and we publish that rather than round it up.

Why is a crypto-backed loan not the same as borrowing on Aave?

Custody. On a DeFi money market the collateral sits in a public contract whose rules and balances anyone can read, and no company can decide to lend it out. Here a company holds your coin and you hold a contractual promise about it. That is a different question with a different failure mode, which is why it is a separate page. The DeFi money markets are ranked under Lending & Borrowing, and every one of them is listed by name with its reason in the 'Considered and not ranked' block on this page.

Are these lenders licensed?

We could not confirm a single one on a public register, and we are publishing that rather than implying otherwise. All five attempts against NMLS Consumer Access or a state regulator failed the same way — an HTTP 403 behind a managed challenge, or a dead API host. So every licensing score on this page rests on what the lender publishes about itself, including the highest one. A blocked register is inconclusive, never proof of a licence and never proof of its absence.

What happens at a margin call?

It varies more than any other mechanic here, which is why it carries 26 points. The questions that separate these lenders are who decides the price, how much notice you get, whether you can top up, and whether the lender sells at its own discretion or by a published rule. A product page that says only 'we will notify you' is not an answer, and is scored as though it were not one.

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Best picks

Best crypto-backed loans in 2026

Weighted on collateral title and reuse (34), margin call and forced sale (26), computable cost before you apply (22), and lender of record and lending licence (18). The heaviest question is the simplest one: while the loan is open, is the bitcoin still yours, and may the lender lend it to someone else? Not one of the five clears 5 out of 10 there, and for all five it is their own worst score. Advertised APR is not the axis — a rate you can compute matters, but the coin coming back matters more.

Best overall

Figure

Data checked Sep 2026

Best for: Lender of record and lending licence — 7/10

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The same published ranking, read for your country, side by side, or one provider at a time.

Every ranked provider, its full verdict

Best crypto-backed loans by country

How this category is defined

Crypto-Backed Loans: overview, criteria and weights

Written and reviewed by Mathias Siemonsmeier Founder

Not financial advice · For informational purposes only · Always do your own research

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