Crypto is on the brink of its next big shift.
Industry experts believe that this could change how people access and use capital. As the ecosystem grows, new opportunities are emerging, giving investors newer ways to tap into value and participate in the market like never before.
Curious? Read on!
Bitwise CEO Hunter Horsley believes that the next big wave in crypto will be credit and borrowing and it could explode in the next 6-12 months. He points out two major shifts driving this trend.
One, crypto already represents nearly $4 trillion in value, and as markets mature, holders will increasingly choose to borrow against their assets instead of selling them. This will add a new way for people to access cash as they can borrow against their assets without having to give up their long-term holdings.
Horsley also notes that the impact will not stop with crypto.
The second vector is that public equities in the U.S. alone represent over $60 trillion in value, and as tokenization takes hold, those assets will also become borrowable onchain. “For the first time, someone holding even $7,000 worth of stock will be able to access credit against it,” he said. This will open up opportunities that previously used to be limited to big players with much greater access to capital.
The timing could not be better. Crypto lending is already hitting new highs, signaling strong demand for on-chain borrowing.
According to a report from Galaxy Research, in Q2 2025, crypto-collateralized lending surged to $53.1B, up 27% QoQ, marking the strongest quarter since early 2022. DeFi lending apps led the rebound, hitting a new all-time high of $26.5B in outstanding loans and expanding their dominance over CeFi to nearly 60% of the market. CeFi lending also grew, but at a slower pace.
Including collateral-backed stablecoins (CDPs), onchain lending (DeFi + CDPs) captured about two-thirds of the market, maintaining its lead over CeFi despite slight double-counting risks in the data.
Meanwhile, the market for tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) has also exploded in recent years. It has grown 380% since 2022 to reach $24 billion in value by mid 2025. This makes it crypto’s second fastest-growing sector after stablecoins.
Big names like BlackRock, JPMorgan, Franklin Templeton, and Apollo are also moving past pilot projects and diving into tokenized real-world assets. Governments are also starting to see blockchain as a tool to modernize finance. Notably, Private Credit led the way at $14 billion, showing strong institutional demand for high-yield, on-chain credit markets.
These numbers are proof that crypto is clearly entering a new era, with Horsley highlighting borrowing and tokenization as new ways for investors.
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