Ledn’s co-founder bets on securitization of Bitcoin-backed loans to attract institutional capital at scale.
Ledn, a company specializing in Bitcoin-backed lending, estimates that the BTC loan market could grow to $1 trillion over the next five to ten years. This was stated by co-founder Mauricio Di Bartolomeo in an interview with The Block, speaking at BTC Prague last week. The central argument is that securitizing Bitcoin-backed loans — modeled after mortgages and auto loans — could unlock access to the asset-backed securities market and attract institutional capital on a systemic scale.
Ledn issued the first Bitcoin-backed loan in Canada in 2018 and today stands as one of the leading global operators in the sector. The company estimates it holds approximately 30% of the global consumer market, having originated $1.4 billion in loans throughout 2025. These are significant figures in a sector that still bears the scars of the 2022 crisis, when players such as Celsius, BlockFi, Voyager Digital, and Genesis collapsed.
Di Bartolomeo pointed to the U.S. mortgage and auto loan market as a reference model, where between 60% and 70% of mortgages and approximately 25% of auto loans are securitized and sold as bonds. Applying the same framework to Bitcoin loans would mean tapping into a multi-trillion-dollar market. “No single balance sheet can provide the liquidity needed to support a $1 trillion market,” the co-founder explained.
Ledn has already taken a concrete first step in this direction, issuing a bond that uses Fidelity as custodian and Jefferies as bookrunner. According to Di Bartolomeo, this is the first Bitcoin debt instrument to receive an investment-grade rating from S&P Global. This type of rating is critical because it allows pension funds and endowments to allocate capital into these instruments, opening a funding source distinct from Bitcoin ETFs or preferred share issuances modeled after Strategy.
