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Leading options · 5 ranked from 13 screened

Crypto-Backed Loans

Crypto-Backed Loans evaluated across what price gets you liquidated, and how far can it drift?, who sets your rate — a utilisation curve or a curator?, if one market goes bad, how much of yours goes with it?, and has it lost lender money before, and did it publish it?.

#1 of 5 · published ranking
Figure
79ChainChoice Score
Why it leads
2 points ahead of Ledn: +2.2 pts lender of record and lending licence, +1.6 pts margin call and forced sale
Cost
Not priced · No comparable price is published
No provider can pay for a position in this table. The code that computes this order cannot read which links earn us a commission, and every build proves it. Every score below rebuilds from the published criteria.Ranking 2026.08 · 4 criteria · 5 products · same inputs, same order
Personal comparison

Crypto-Backed Loans ranked comparison

No comparable price is published; ranking still uses verified product evidence.

RankProviderBest fitScore
1
FigureThe only lender in this pool whose coll...Top ranked
Lender of record and lending licence — 7/10Trade-off: Two things, and the first is the one a borrower would resent most because they relied...
79score
Check availability for your countryVisit Figure · figure.com

Commission: This provider pays ChainChoice nothing for this link. Disclosure

Crypto products are high risk. Check the provider is authorised where you live before you deposit.

2
LednThe only lender in this pool that publi...
Computable cost before you apply — 7/10Trade-off: That you no longer own the bitcoin, and that selling it may not end the debt. The fi...
77score
Check availability for your countryVisit Ledn · ledn.io

Commission: This provider pays ChainChoice nothing for this link. Disclosure

Crypto products are high risk. Check the provider is authorised where you live before you deposit.

3
MiloMiloA Florida NMLS-licensed direct lender (...
Computable cost before you apply — 7/10Trade-off: That the 'no rehypothecation' promise you chose Milo for is not in any document you w...
76score
Check availability for your countryVisit Milo · milo.io

Commission: This provider pays ChainChoice nothing for this link. Disclosure

Crypto products are high risk. Check the provider is authorised where you live before you deposit.

4
SALT LendingThe longest-running US crypto-backed le...
Lender of record and lending licence — 8/10Trade-off: That the collateral is not ring-fenced from SALT, and that SALT has stopped letting p...
72score
Check availability for your countryVisit SALT Lending · saltlending.com

Commission: This provider pays ChainChoice nothing for this link. Disclosure

Crypto products are high risk. Check the provider is authorised where you live before you deposit.

5
NexoNexoNexo's Credit Line is not a secured loa...
Computable cost before you apply — 3/10Trade-off: That you no longer own the bitcoin. The moment coin lands in the Credit Wallet, Exhib...
53score
Check availability for your countryVisit Nexo · nexo.com

Commission: This provider pays ChainChoice nothing for this link. Disclosure

Crypto products are high risk. Check the provider is authorised where you live before you deposit.

Ranking blindCommercial terms excludedDated primary sourcesCrypto products are high risk. Check the provider is authorised where you live before you deposit.

Ranked on 4 published criteria weighted 34/26/22/18, which set goal alignment — 30 of the 86 points. The rest: regional access 20, evidence depth 18, ease of use 10, institutional trust 8. Profile match is shown in breakdowns but carries no weight.

Audit
Infrastructure
Methodology
2026.09.15
published 2026-09-16
Providers tracked
980+
across 119 categories
Last verified
2026-08-19
newest dated pricing or sentiment read
Named on the roster
2 people
managing directors · 6 automated processes
Decision guide

What matters most before choosing in this category

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.

What matters most before choosing in this category

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.

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?
Leads on the binding document

Expert review and scoring weights

FigureData checked Aug 2026
The only lender in this pool whose collateral-custody terms are a loadable binding contract leaving title with the borrower — and the only one whose no-rehypothecation covenant binds a company its own disclosures say is not the lender.

The only lender in this pool whose collateral-custody terms are a loadable binding contract leaving title with the borrower — and the only one whose no-rehypothecation covenant binds a company its own disclosures say is not the lender. Strongest on which entity actually becomes your creditor, and does a register say it may lend? (7/10): VERIFIED 2026-08-19. THE DEEPEST LENDING-LICENCE DISCLOSURE IN THIS POOL, AND NOT ONE LINE RESOLVED ON A REGISTER FROM THIS ENVIRONMENT. CREDITOR NAMED PER LEG [both verbatim confirmed]: 'Crypto loans are offered to U.S. Weakest on if the lender fails, is it your bitcoin or theirs — and what may they do with it before then? (5/10): VERIFIED 2026-08-19. BINDING CUSTODY CONTRACT READ, NOT A HOMEPAGE. Figure Markets General Terms of Service (HTTP 200, 283,652 bytes — byte count reproduced exactly, 'Last Updated: July 8, 2026'), Appendix B Exchange Terms, govern the CBL collateral. Published price: RATE CARD, VERBATIM, https://www.figure.com/crypto-backed-loan/ (HTTP 200, 490,586 bytes, re-fetched 2026-08-19, byte count reproduced) — the vendor publishes TWO, in the same file, in the same fetch. CONFIRMED ON VERIFICATION.

Best forLender of record and lending licence — 7/10
Main tradeoffTwo things, and the first is the one a borrower would resent most because they relied on it before sending the coin. Figure's product page promises 'Your collateral is held by our qualified custodian and will never be rehypothecated.' — but the string 'rehypothec' does not appear once in the 283,652 bytes of the binding Figure Markets General Terms of Service (independently re-run 2026-08-19: 0 hits), and the covenant that DOES exist there — 'neither Figure nor the operators of any MPC Nodes will sell, transfer, loan, hypothecate or otherwise alienate supported Digital Assets in your Digital Asset Wallet unless instructed to do so by you' — binds 'Figure', which those Terms define as 'Figure Markets Holdings, Inc., and its affiliates (including Figure Payments Corporation)'. The company that actually becomes the borrower's creditor is Figure Lending LLC, and Figure's own disclosure says 'Figure Lending is not affiliated with Figure Markets Holdings, Inc., Figure Technologies, LLC or any of its subsidiaries.' On pledge, that same lender becomes the UCC-8 'entitlement holder' of the collateral. So the borrower keeps title, gets a per-loan segregated sub-wallet and a watchable address — genuinely good, and all of it confirmed in a binding document — while the promise they bought is written against a different company, the loan agreement that would bind the real one is never published, and the words 'bankrupt' and 'insolven' return zero hits across the only binding document they can read. Second, the cost: a borrower who reads '9.999% APR' and 'twelve monthly payments of $74.25' is quoted the path they are NOT put on. 'By default, borrowers are opted into an interest-deferral feature' under which 'Accrued interest continues to compound during the deferral period' — they must actively opt out to get the loan whose APR they were shown, and no rate on the marketing page prices the compounding one. Compounding that, the same URL serves two different rate cards in a single load: the rendered page says 8.91%/11.50%, its own JSON-LD says 9.9%/12.4%.
Verify before signupRATE CARD, VERBATIM, https://www.figure.com/crypto-backed-loan/ (HTTP 200, 490,586 bytes, re-fetched 2026-08-19, byte count reproduced) — the vendor publishes TWO, in the same file, in the same fetch. CONFIRMED ON VERIFICATION. (A) Rendered disclosure block: '**Repayment Period (Minimum-Maximum):** 12 months' / '**Maximum APR:** 12.62% APR (APR includes interest plus applicable fees such as the 1% origination fee). 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 (Total Cost):** As an example, 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. Rates will be higher for applications secured by assets with a higher LTV ratio. The Figure Crypto-Backed Loan has a 12 month interest-only repayment term and allows for a maximum initial LTV ratio of 75%. Interest rates change frequently so your exact interest rate will depend on the date you apply and may depend on many factors such as LTV ratio.' (B) The single application/ld+json block in the SAME file, SAME load — isolated from the body and confirmed: 'You can borrow up to 75% of the value of your crypto at a fixed interest rates of 9.9% at 50% or below or 12.4% up to 75%.' The body carries the same sentence updated to '8.91% (9.999% APR) at 50%'. Machine-readable and human-readable prices disagree. COMPARISON TABLE ROWS — READ BY RAW COLUMN KEY ON VERIFICATION. Figure is column two (carries Figure's rate, Figure's custodian, Figure's restricted states, 'Founded 2018'). Figure's own cells: 'Interest rates' = '8.91% (9.999% APR)<sup>2</sup> @ 50%'; 'Origination fee' = '1%<sup>2</sup>'; 'Supported assets' = 'BTC, ETH, SOL'; 'Custodian' = 'Decentralized, MPC custody'; 'Term length' = '1 year'; 'Restricted US states (retail)' = 'DC, ID, IL, KY, MD, MS, SD, TX, VT, and VA'. Table footnote: 'Chart based on 3rd party review conducted in July 2026.' CORRECTION TO THE PRIOR DRAFT: 'Up to 2 years' was cited as Figure's term row contradicting the '12 months' disclosure. It is colFourValue — a COMPETITOR's cell (custodian 'Anchorage', 'Founded 2022'). Figure's own term row reads '1 year' and is CONSISTENT with the 12-month disclosure. No term contradiction exists. LTV TIERS — SCOPED, NOT FLATLY CONTRADICTORY: 'We allow an initial loan-to-value ratio (LTV) of up to 75%.' and 'allows for a maximum initial LTV ratio of 75%' are the product's cap. 'The maximum loan-to-value ("LTV") ratio is 50% at origination.' is real but sits inside the liquidation-protection footnote (which opens 'Liquidation protection is only available in CA, NY, FL, PA, AL, AK, GA, HI, MA, UT.') and recurs on figure.com/liquidation-protection-disclosures/ scoped to that optional programme. Residual ambiguity: the footnote names 'The Figure Crypto Backed Loan (CBL)' without flagging that the 50% is programme-specific. MARGIN / LIQUIDATION TIERS, https://www.figure.com/faqs/crypto-backed-loans/ (HTTP 200, 163,549 bytes, byte count reproduced) — ladder block re-extracted contiguously and confirmed character-exact: 'Ranges for loans with an initial 50% LTV:' '* LTV ≥ 75% → courtesy notice that you may soon receive a margin call' '* LTV ≥ 80% → receive margin call and must cure to ≤ initial LTV within 48 hours*' '* LTV ≥ 90% → automatic liquidation'. 'Ranges for loans with an initial 75% LTV:' '* LTV ≥ 80% → courtesy notice that you may soon receive a margin call' '* LTV ≥ 85% → receive margin call and must cure to ≤ initial LTV within 48 hours*' '* LTV ≥ 90% → automatic liquidation'. OTHER FEES: 'A 2% liquidation fee is applicable in certain regions, which is disclosed in your loan offer documents when a CBL is taken out.' / 'A renewal fee may be charged if you opt to renew.' / 'You can prepay your loan at any time without penalty.' / 'Crypto Loans starts at a minimum of $5,000, subject to state and jurisdiction-specific legal limitations.' (all figure.com/faqs/crypto-backed-loans/, verified 2026-08-19). UNPRICED: 'A one-time, non-refundable Protection Fee is paid at loan origination to enroll in the Liquidation Protection Program' (figure.com/liquidation-protection-disclosures/) — no rate or amount published anywhere. THE PAGE THAT HIDES THE REAL DOCUMENT: no Crypto-Backed Loan Agreement is served on figure.com or figuremarkets.com. https://www.figure.com/crypto-backed-loan-agreement/ = HTTP 404 and https://www.figure.com/disclosures/crypto/ = HTTP 404 (both re-tested 2026-08-19); the agreement is referenced only as 'subject to all terms and conditions of the Loan Agreement' (figure.com/liquidation-protection-disclosures/).
Methodology

How this category is reviewed

Reviewed on if the lender fails, is it your bitcoin or theirs — and what may they do with it before then?, who sets the price that liquidates you, how long do you really get, and can they sell without telling you?, can you compute your total cost, at your tier, before you apply?, and which entity actually becomes your creditor, and does a register say it may lend?.

The order on this page is the published ranking for this category. Every criterion, weight and source behind it is on the methodology page.
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.
REVIEWEDAugust 19, 2026METHOD4 criteriaCATEGORYcrypto_backed_loans
Not financial advice · For informational purposes only · Always do your own research
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