LEDGER LAUNCHES BITCOIN LOANS — THE COLLATERAL IS CBBTC OR WBTC — YOUR DEVICE SIGNS, A CUSTODIAN HOLDS THE BITCOIN

Ledger launched Crypto Loan at TOKEN2049 Singapore on October 7, 2026, Decrypt reports. Ledger Wallet users can borrow USDC or USDT through Morpho, with Yield.xyz as the technical provider, and approve each step on their Ledger device. Ledger’s pitch, as quoted by crypto.news: borrowing “against Bitcoin-linked assets without selling them or placing collateral with a centralized lending platform.”

The collateral is not bitcoin. It is cbBTC or wBTC, tokens on Ethereum. Coinbase says cbBTC is “backed 1:1 by Bitcoin (BTC) held by Coinbase.” The WBTC site says its coins are “safeguarded by licensed custodian” and does not name that custodian on its homepage. The borrower holds keys to a token. Someone else holds the bitcoin.

Here is what a borrower can check: the loan contract on Morpho, the token balance, the liquidation math. Here is what they have to trust: that the custodian holds the coins and will redeem them. Ledger has not published loan-to-value limits or rates. crypto.news reports the rates are variable and that “liquidation risks apply.”

A hardware signer proves you approved a transaction. It cannot prove the bitcoin behind a token exists. Someone holding real bitcoin has to swap it for a claim on Coinbase or a WBTC custodian before they can borrow here, and that custodian is the same kind of middleman a centralized lender would have been. The keys are yours. The bitcoin is an IOU. At the time of this writing, bitcoin was $82,968.