Crypto lending reach new all-time high with DeFi activity ahead of CeFi growth

On-chain crypto collateralized loans grew 42% in the second quarter of 2025 to hit a new all-time high of $26.5 ￰0￱ investment firm Galaxy disclosed this in its latest report on the crypto lending ￰1￱ to the report by Galaxy Research associate Zach Pokorny, the 42% increase means the dollar value of open loans on decentralized finance applications increased by $7.84 billion. However, loans on centralized finance crypto platforms also increased, although at a lower ￰2￱ of June 30, the value of outstanding CeFi loans reached $17.78 billion, representing a 14.66% growth quarter over ￰3￱ this shows how DeFi continues to outpace CeFi regarding crypto loans, the centralized platforms have grown substantially in the past few ￰4￱ Research noted CeFi loans have grown by 147.5%, around $10.59 billion, since Q4 2023.

Interestingly, the surge in crypto loan value during Q2 marks a resurgence after declining in ￰5￱ captures the renewed optimism in the crypto sector, which picked up around April. Thus, it was not just that more users were lending crypto ￰6￱ value of cryptocurrencies also increased significantly during the period, contributing to the general rise in dollar value of crypto ￰7￱ leads centralized lending Meanwhile, Tether is the clear leader for centralized lending activity as the stablecoin issuer, having a 57.02% market share with $10.14 billion in open loans as of June ￰8￱ is followed by Nexo, which has an 11.01% share of $1.96 billion, while Galaxy is in the top three at $1.11 ￰9￱ three firms account for 74.26% of all open loans from CeFi lenders.

Still, the subsector shows a lot of diversity with CeFi lenders offering different kinds of loans across the ￰10￱ some offer only Bitcoin-collateralized loans, others allow altcoin collateral, and cash loans do not include ￰11￱ lending market size by Q2 ending.