- Bitwise’s CEO predicts crypto’s next major trend will be borrowing and credit, driven by $4T in existing assets.
- Tokenization of traditional assets will let investors borrow directly on-chain, expanding access to crypto-backed loans.
The chief executive of Bitwise Asset Management, Hunter Horsley, identified crypto borrowing and credit as the next primary development for digital assets. Horsley published this view on the social media platform X. He anticipates this topic will become central to industry discussions within six to twelve months.
Horsley described two reasons for this projected expansion. Investors currently hold almost $4 trillion in cryptocurrency assets. Many may decide to take loans using these holdings as collateral instead of selling them. The second reason is the tokenization of traditional assets.
6-12 months from now, the big story in crypto is going to be credit and borrowing.
It will explosively grow over the next few years.
Two vectors:
1. There’s nearly $4 trillion dollars of crypto and growing: when people can borrow against this crypto, rather than sell, they…
— Hunter Horsley (@HHorsley) September 18, 2025
Horsley stated the crypto credit sector is just beginning. He added that it will change global capital markets in a basic and important way.
This perspective coincides with measurable growth in decentralized finance. Industry data indicates the total crypto lending market was valued at $36.5 billion in late 2024. This level shows a strong return from the lower activity after the 2021 peak.
The amount of open borrowing on blockchains increased by 959% from late 2022. It reached $19.1 billion by the conclusion of the previous year. The Aave platform conducts more than 75% of all lending activity on Ethereum. The total value of assets locked on Aave grew 15% in a single month. That value is now close to $41.9 billion.
Another lending service, Morpho, holds $8.5 billion in total locked value. It experienced a 34% rise during the same timeframe.
The combined market capitalization for leading lending and borrowing tokens increased 3.65% in twenty-four hours. Kamino Finance is a top token in this sector. Its value grew 37% over the last seven days.
