“Crypto Lending Crashes 43%: The Hilarious Downfall of CeFi!”

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Well, well, well, the crypto lending market decided to take a nosedive, plummeting to a mere $36.5 billion in Q4 2024. That’s a whopping 40% drop from its glory days in late 2021. Talk about a bad hair day! 💇‍♂️

According to the brainiacs at Galaxy Digital, the market is still licking its wounds, with total loans outstanding at $36.5 billion. That’s a far cry from the $64.4 billion peak in late 2021. In their April 14 report, Galaxy blamed the “decimation of lenders on the supply side, and funds, individuals, and corporate entities on the demand side.” In other words, it’s a bloodbath out there! 🩸

CeFi lenders got the worst of it during the 2022–2023 downturn. Some of the biggest names in centralized finance “crumbled in 2022 and 2023” as crypto asset prices tanked and “liquidity in the market dried up,” Galaxy wrote. Firms like Genesis, Celsius Network, BlockFi, and Voyager all threw in the towel and filed for bankruptcy. It’s like watching a bad soap opera, but with more zeros! 📉

CeFi lending peaked at an estimated $34.8 billion, but a wave of bankruptcies sent it tumbling 82% to $6.4 billion. The top three CeFi lenders — Tether, Galaxy, and Ledn — held a combined loan book of $9.9 billion, or 88.6% of the CeFi market. Compare that to Q1 2022, when Genesis, BlockFi, and Celsius made up 76% of the market. It’s like a game of musical chairs, but with billions of dollars! 🎶

On the bright side, decentralized finance lending has bounced back like a champ. Open borrows across 20 lending apps and 12 blockchains rose to $19.1 billion by Q4 2024, a 959% increase from the $1.8 billion low in Q4 2022. Galaxy called it a “testament to the design and risk management practices of the large onchain lending apps.” In other words, DeFi is the new cool kid on the block! 🚀

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2025-04-15 10:00