Crisis in crypto lending shines light on industry vulnerabilities

cointelegraph.com:

The crypto market has entered a bearish phase as prices of major cryptocurrencies have fallen to a four-year low. The current downturn in the crypto market has driven several crypto firms to go out of business, while many have made severe job cuts to remain afloat.

The crypto market crisis began with the Terra debacle that saw $40 billion in investors’ money vanish from the market. At the time, the crypto market showed good resistance against such a massive collapse. However, the after-effects of the collapse had a greater impact on the crypto market, especially crypto lending firms, which many believe are responsible for the current bearish phase.

The lending crisis began in the second week of June when top lending firms started to move their funds to avoid liquidations on overleveraged positions, but the heavy selling that put bearish pressure on prices led to a further downfall.

Ryan Shea, a crypto economist at the institutional digital asset service provider Trekx, said that the lending model makes it vulnerable to volatile markets like crypto. He told Cointelegraph:

“During such episodes, customers spooked into thinking they may not get their money back rush to the bank and seek to withdraw their deposits. However, banks do not keep their clients’ money in liquid form, they lend out a large portion of those deposits to borrowers (illiquid) in return for a higher yield — the difference being their revenue source,” he added.

He said that only those customers who act quickly are able to withdraw their money which is what makes liquidity crises such dramatic affairs, “which the collapse of Lehman Brothers and more recently Terra — the crypto equivalent — aptly demonstrates.”

Celsius Network, a crypto lending firm that has