In the traditional financial system, the loan business relies on intermediaries such as banks for credit evaluation and risk control, and there are problems such as lengthy processes, information asymmetry, and poor asset liquidity. The emergence of blockchain-based loan assets has transformed loan claims into traceable and programmable digital assets through blockchain technology, constructing a new decentralized financial paradigm of "code is credit". How does this new financial tool automate the loan process? And in which areas will it reshape the underlying logic of the credit economy?
Core concept: digital debt certificates circulating on the chain
Blockchain loan assets are digital assets published based on blockchain technology, representing the creditor's rights and interests of traditional loans or on-chain loans. Its core is to tokenize loan contracts, collateral, repayment rules and other elements on the chain to achieve digital mapping of financial claims. Compared with traditional loans, its core features include:
- Decentralized Confirmation : Loan claims are minted into homogeneous tokens (such as ERC-20 standard) or non-fungible tokens (NFTs) through smart contracts, and the ownership of the claims is recorded on a distributed ledger without relying on a centralized registry. For example, after a company converts accounts receivable claims into blockchain loan assets, investors can directly hold and trade them through their wallet address.
- Automated contract execution : Smart contracts preset loan repayment period, interest rate, collateral settlement rules and other terms, and automatically execute repayment or trigger default processing at maturity. For example, if a user pledges ETH in the Aave protocol to obtain a USDC loan, when the ETH price falls to the collateral rate threshold, the contract automatically auctions the collateral to repay the debt;
- Cross-chain Asset Compatibility : Supports using multiple types of assets such as Bitcoin, gold, real estate, etc. as collateral, and enables asset interoperability between different blockchain networks through cross-chain Technology Implementation. For example, users can cross-chain Bitcoin (BTC) to Ethereum as collateral to obtain stablecoin loans in the Compound protocol.
According to the underlying asset type, blockchain loan assets are mainly divided into two categories.
- Crypto asset collateral : loans published with digital assets such as BTC and ETH as collateral, accounting for more than 80% of the DeFi lending market, representing protocols including Aave and Compound;
- Real Asset (RWA) Tokenization Class : Loans that publish traditional financial assets (such as bonds, accounts receivable, real estate) on the chain, such as the compliance accounts receivable tokenization project supported by HashKey Exchange, the underlying assets can be traced back to the operating data of the entity enterprise.
Technology Architecture: Process management system driven by smart contracts
The Technology Implementation of Blockchain Loan Assets is based on "automation, transparency, and compliance", constructing a three-tier architecture system.
- Underlying blockchain and token standards
Choose public chains such as Ethereum and Solana that support smart contracts as the underlying layer, and adopt standardized token protocols to ensure interoperability.
- ERC-1400 protocol : For Securitization loan assets, support for embedding regulatory rules (such as Accredited Investors certification, transaction limits), for example, a compliance loan platform limits "single account holdings to no more than 5% of the asset pool" through the ERC-1400 contract.
- ERC-20 protocol : Suitable for mortgage lending in decentralized finance (DeFi), such as cToken (Compound protocol), aToken (Aave protocol), real-time recording of loan balance and interest income.
- Smart contract automated execution engine
Smart contracts undertake the core management function of the loan lifecycle.
- Loan publish : After the borrower locks in the collateral (such as 100 ETH), the contract automatically generates equivalent loan assets (such as 80,000 USDC) and issues them to the user's address, and the whole process does not require manual review;
- Income distribution : Automatically calculate interest at a preset interest rate (such as 5% annualized), and distribute the income to the creditor's address regularly. A certain DeFi lending protocol realizes "daily interest automatic reinvestment" through smart contracts, helping users achieve maximum income;
- Risk control : Integrated oracles (such as Chainlink) monitor the collateral price in real time, and when the collateral rate is lower than the safe threshold (such as 150%), automatically trigger the liquidation process, and auction the collateral through the decentralized exchange (DEX) to repay the debt.
- Compliance and cross-chain interaction module
- KYC/AML integration : compliance platforms such as HashKey Exchange verify user qualifications through on-chain identity authentication (DID) when publishing blockchain loan assets to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements such as the Financial Action Task Force (FATF);
- Cross-chain bridge technology : Using Polkadot cross-chain bridge, Avalanche subnet and other technologies, realize the mortgage circulation of assets such as Bitcoin and US dollar stablecoins between different public chains, and improve asset utilization efficiency.
Application Scenario: Credit Revolution in Diversified Financial Scenarios
Blockchain loan assets are extending from DeFi native scenarios to traditional financial fields, unleashing new momentum in the credit economy.
- The core infrastructure of decentralized finance (DeFi)
In the DeFi ecosystem, blockchain loan assets support core scenarios such as mortgage lending and liquidity mining.
- Users obtain USDC loans by pledging ETH in the Aave protocol, and then deposit USDC into the Curve liquidity pool to participate in mining, forming a "pledge-loan-reinvestment" income loop.
- Decentralized derivative protocol Synthetix allows users to generate synthetic assets (sAssets) linked to assets such as gold and stocks through the blockchain loan asset collateral mechanism, achieving unlimited expansion of on-chain assets.
- On-chain financialization of real assets (RWA)
Traditional financial assets are transformed into blockchain loan assets through tokenization, bridging the gap between the physical world and digital finance.
- Real estate companies tokenize the rental income rights of commercial real estate, publish blockchain mortgage loan assets, and investors can receive rental dividends proportionally after purchasing. At the same time, 24-hour transactions are realized through [HashKey Exchange], which increases liquidity by 10 times compared to traditional real estate trusts.
- Core enterprises in the supply chain will upload accounts receivable to the chain. Small and medium-sized enterprises can quickly obtain financing by pledging accounts receivable tokens. A cross-border trade platform has shortened the financing cycle from 30 days to 2 hours through this model.
- Inclusive finance and credit evaluation innovation
In areas with imperfect credit systems, blockchain loan assets achieve "unsecured credit loans" through on-chain behavioral data.
- TrueFi, a decentralized lending protocol, evaluates credit ratings based on on-chain data such as users' NFT holding records and DeFi lending history, and provides unsecured USDC loans to qualified users, covering people who have not been served by traditional finance.
- The government is piloting the blockchain of citizens' tax records and social security data, generating credit evaluation tokens as collateral for blockchain loan assets, reducing the cost of credit review for inclusive finance.
Although blockchain loan assets have broad prospects, their development still faces challenges such as inconsistent regulatory frameworks (such as legal definitions of "digital claims" in various countries), oracle data security (such as price manipulation risks), and smart contract vulnerabilities (such as logical errors leading to settlement failures). With the maturity of technology and the advancement of regulatory sandboxes, blockchain loan assets are expected to become the core link connecting traditional finance with Web3.0, enabling more efficient circulation and distribution of credit value on the chain, and promoting the financial system towards "disintermediation, programmability, and inclusiveness".