Alameda Research, one of the biggest crypto market trading firms, is sidestepping banks to borrow up to $1bn of new money from peers as it seeks to expand its activities, in the first syndicated debt deal in decentralised finance markets.
The computer driven trading firm which specialises in buying and selling digital assets is owned by one of the richest men in crypto, Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder and chief executive of exchange FTX.
On Thursday, Alameda will tap into a pool of stablecoin funds deposited by five investors for a $25m syndicated loan, which will take place on a blockchain infrastructure provided by marketplace Maple Finance. This will be the first of a series of drawdowns scheduled to reach $1bn in the course of a year, with initial lenders including digital asset managers CoinShares and Abra.