tysker said:
And how do you achieve yield on an asset that is non-fungible? Gold, oil, platinum, and USD are non-yield producing assets and BTC is no different. The related securitized vehicles (eg ETFs) dont produce yield (dividends).
I guess I could see the banks creating BTC swaps or some bonds collateralized by fees and trading income flows, but those are, in my experience, done under a 144A offering and not made available to the public. And the big players don't need BTC except as a latch on product for specific clientele. In fact, a primary (side?) effect of BTC is to remove banks from the money transfer and asset oversight equations, so why would they assist in expediting that process?
As a caveat, I am not very passionate about evolution of Bitcoin yield markets, so I'm not that interested in trading long-winded posts on this topic.
When you focus on intrinsic aspect of the commodities you listed, you're correct that no yield is produced. (A+ job on distinguishing BTC as a commodity btw). The yield is set via the financialization of the commodity, to the extent that financialization is even feasible.
People get yield on their USD in many financial assets offered by many financial institutions (CDs, money market funds, savings accounts, etc). Just because the intrinsic dollar when thought of as a commodity doesn't generate yield doesn't mean there isn't demand to lend it out. And when demand exists to lend it out, lenders will require yield to part with it for the term of the loan. It's the same idea with Bitcoin. Oil and platinum are more consumable commodities as opposed to "store of value" commodities, so I'd think of them separately.
The main reason someone might want to take a loan in Bitcoin is because they think they can generate a better return deploying the loaned Bitcoin, then pay back the Bitcoin principal at a later date and keep the spread between the return they generated and the interest rate they paid.
How were they generating the return? In a number of ways that are generally unsustainable:
1) Playing the perp spread game when the market was hot offered reasonably high yield, but it doesn't last.
2) Playing the spot/futures spread (generally allows investor to "lock in" a return... traditional finance tactic).
3) Using the loaned Bitcoin as collateral on a defi app to take out another loan and buy more Bitcoin with the expectation that the price will increase between the time you took out the loan and paid it back.
4) Converting the loaned Bitcoin to an alt with staking yield higher than loan interest rate
5) Selling the loaned Bitcoin and shorting it, with intention to buy back later and repay the loan (traditional finance tactic).
I generally loathe all those games and my point in listing them isn't to defend them. Most of Bitcoin's volatility (at least in recent years) can be linked to it's peripheral financialization and corresponding manipulation.
However, I don't think those tactics should be prohibited either. They just shouldn't occur in the confines of an opaque defi structure or alt scheme. If a fund in Fidelity wants to engage in those tactics to generate yield/return, they should be free to do so. But they should have to disclose what they're doing and how they're doing it per regulatory statute.
The market for Bitcoin loans is still very young and evolving based on a number of TBD factors. I could speculate on how I think that will happen but I've already written enough. Happy fourth buddy.