BitGo rolls out portfolio-based crypto lending platform for institutions

Digital asset infrastructure provider BitGo has launched a financing platform that lets institutional clients borrow and lend against a range of digital assets, including liquid tokens, staked positions and locked holdings, within a single account.

The company said the system consolidates borrowing, lending and collateral management into one workflow, replacing processes that have typically required multiple counterparties and manual asset transfers.

By introducing portfolio-based lending, BitGo hopes to give clients access to credit against a mix of assets held in custody rather than posting collateral on a per-loan basis.

It also supports loans backed by staked and locked tokens, which BitGo says will allow institutions to use those positions as collateral without unwinding them, while maintaining visibility and control over assets held in custody.

Institutional clients can also lend eligible assets through the platform, using the same account to deploy capital for yield or access liquidity for trading and treasury needs.

Financing activity is handled within BitGo’s custody environment, with collateral held in segregated wallets and credit extended 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 grows across exchanges, DeFi and institutional markets

Bitcoin-backed lending has grown across the digital asset market over the past year, with exchanges, DeFi protocols and institutional entities increasingly offering credit against crypto holdings.

In November, Mezo and Anchorage Digital began to offer institutional clients Bitcoin-backed stablecoin loans and short-term yield strategies, enabling borrowing against $BTC held in custody while earning tokenized rewards through locked positions.

Exchanges are also looking to get in on the action. In January, Coinbase relaunched after 16-month halt its 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 offering fixed terms from two days to two years for advanced users.

At the institutional level, infrastructure is evolving toward custody-integrated models. In March, Lombard and Bitwise Asset Management said they would develop systems allowing institutions to earn yield and borrow against Bitcoin held in custody, without moving the underlying assets.

Parallel efforts are expanding Bitcoin’s role in financial applications. Babylon Labs recently integrated with Ledger to enable $BTC to be locked into programmable vaults while remaining in self-custody, a structure that could support lending and yield strategies.

Total Bitcoin onchain. Source: DefiLlama

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