In Q3 2025, the volume of crypto-backed loans increased by $20.46 billion, setting a new all-time high. At the same time, the market structure became significantly more conservative and transparent.
According to a report by Galaxy Research, the total volume of crypto-collateralized lending reached a record $73.59 billion in Q3 2025, exceeding the previous peak from late 2021 by 6.09%. The main growth driver is the expansion of on-chain loans in DeFi protocols, while the CeFi sector, after the 2022 crisis, shifted to stricter risk management standards and almost entirely abandoned uncollateralized loans.
The share of on-chain loans in total volume rose to 66.9% compared to 48.6% at the peak of the previous cycle in 2021. Within this segment, a notable shift occurred — more than 80% of the volume now comes from lending protocols such as Aave, Fluid, Morpho, and others. Meanwhile, the share of CDP stablecoins, the largest of which is DAI, dropped to 16% from 53% in 2021.
Total DeFi loan volume reached $40.99 billion, increasing by $14.52 billion (54.84%) over the quarter. Growth was significantly driven by incentive programs (points farming), rising prices of BTC, ETH, and SOL, and the emergence of more efficient collateral types such as Principal Tokens.
The volume of centralized loans grew by 37.11% compared to the previous quarter, reaching $24.37 billion — still 34.3% below the ATH of $37.08 billion set in Q1 2022.
Following the bankruptcy of several major market participants in 2022–2023, CeFi platforms moved toward fully collateralized lending and tightened internal procedures. The market leader remains Tether, with an open credit portfolio of $14.6 billion and a 59.91% share. The top three also include Nexo ($2.04 billion) and Galaxy ($1.8 billion).
Tether is expanding its presence in the Bitcoin lending market, having invested in the lending platform Ledn, one of the global leaders in consumer loans collateralized by Bitcoin.
