Digital asset infrastructure provider BitGo has launched a financing platform that allows institutional clients to borrow and lend against a range of digital assets, including liquid tokens, staked positions and locked holdings, within a single account.
The company says the system consolidates loan, loan and collateral management into a single workflow, replacing processes that typically required multiple counterparties and manual asset transfers.
By introducing portfolio-based lending, BitGo hopes to give customers access to credit against a mix of assets held in custody, rather than posting collateral per loan.
It will also support loans backed by staked and locked tokens, which BitGo says will allow institutions to use these positions as collateral without unwinding them, while maintaining visibility and control over the assets held in custody.
Institutional customers can also borrow eligible assets through the platform, using the same account to deploy capital for returns or access liquidity for trading and treasury needs.
Funding activities are handled within BitGo’s custodial environment, holding collateral in segregated wallets and providing credit against assets including Bitcoin ($BTC), Ether (ETH), Solana (SOL) and stablecoins. Funds accessed through the platform can be used for trading via BitGo’s brokerage services or for broader liquidity and capital management needs.
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Bitcoin lending is growing on exchanges, DeFi and institutional markets
Bitcoin-backed lending has grown in the digital asset market over the past year, with exchanges, DeFi protocols and institutional entities increasingly offering credit against crypto assets.
In November, Mezo and Anchorage Digital began offering institutional clients Bitcoin-backed stablecoin lending and short-term return strategies, enabling low-interest lending. $BTC held in custody while earning token rewards through locked positions.
Stock exchanges are also trying to get in on the action. In January, Coinbase relaunched after a 16-month freeze on Bitcoin-backed lending in the United States, allowing users to borrow up to $100,000 in USDC against $BTC via Morpho on its Base network.
In February, Kraken introduced Flexline, a crypto-backed loan product with fixed terms from two days to two years for advanced users.
At the institutional level, infrastructure is moving toward custodial-integrated models. In March, Lombard and Bitwise Asset Management said they would develop systems that allow institutions to earn returns and borrow against Bitcoin in custody without moving the underlying assets.
Parallel efforts are expanding Bitcoin’s role in financial applications. Babylon Labs recently integrated with Ledger to make this possible $BTC to be locked in programmable vaults while remaining self-managed, a structure that could support credit and return strategies.
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