Nearly $1 million in loans in the first 48 hours shows consumers want a safer, regulated alternative to offshore lenders and DeFi
DALLAS, TX — October 19, 2026 — Many Americans hold cryptocurrency. Until today, if they wanted to borrow against it without selling, they had to go to an offshore lender or a decentralized finance (DeFi) app. Starting now, they can go to their own bank or credit union.
BankSocial® (Fivancial™ Inc.), a Dallas-based financial technology company specializing in AI, Open Banking and Web3 infrastructure, today announced that its patent-pending Digital Asset-Backed Loans (DABL™) platform is live with a multi-billion-dollar U.S. financial institution. The launch partner originated nearly $1 million in loans in its first 48 hours.
Borrowers can pledge Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), Chainlink (LINK), Hedera (HBAR), Ripple (XRP) and more than 250 other digital assets as collateral, as chosen by each financial institution. They apply, borrow and repay inside the same mobile and online banking app they already use, and their loan is made, owned and serviced by their own regulated institution.
A Safer Place to Borrow
Crypto-backed borrowing has a rough track record. Bridge exploits, smart-contract hacks and failed crypto lenders have wiped out billions of dollars, often leaving borrowers with nowhere to turn.
DABL takes a different approach. The lender is a bank or credit union the borrower already knows. The collateral is held by regulated, insured, institutional-grade custodians, not in an anonymous smart contract. No monthly payments are required. Borrowers can pay down the loan anytime, by automatic transfer, online or mobile banking, ACH or at a branch.
Your Bank Makes the Call
“Consumers have been borrowing against their digital assets for years, often in places where they had no protection at all, while banks and credit unions sat on the sidelines,” said John Wingate, Founder and CEO of BankSocial. “Nearly $1 million in loans in 48 hours tells us people want this from the institution they already trust. With DABL, the bank or credit union owns the loan, the relationship and the revenue, and it keeps full control of the collateral from start to finish.”
BankSocial supplies the technology that links the institution’s core banking system, its digital banking app and its custodian. The institution makes every lending decision. It chooses which digital assets it accepts, and sets interest rates, loan-to-value limits, margin call and liquidation thresholds, and underwriting criteria.
“Our patent-pending technology is what makes this possible,” Wingate said. “It lets a bank or credit union originate, underwrite, service and hold the loan itself, directly in its core and digital banking systems, rather than referring customers to a third-party lender or buying loans someone else made. We built it so our partner institutions own the outcomes instead of renting them.”
Because crypto prices move around the clock, DABL watches each loan’s collateral value in real time. It sends automated alerts when thresholds are crossed and runs governed workflows so the institution can act well before collateral falls below the loan balance. Loan officers see collateral health at a glance in BankSocial’s Nuron™ portal, with no crypto expertise required.
For borrowers, the experience lives inside BankSocial’s Prospera™ wealth management experience in mobile and online banking. For the institution’s staff, each DABL loan appears in the core like any other loan, with origination, general ledger postings and account syncing handled automatically. For many community institutions, that adds a new source of interest and fee income on fully collateralized loans, while keeping deposits and customer relationships that might otherwise move to crypto exchanges.
What Comes Next
BankSocial plans to announce more collateral types, more participating banks and credit unions, and the full name of its launch partner during Q4 2026. The company also sees DABL as groundwork for tokenized lending: institutions already custodying and monitoring digital collateral could later lend against tokenized real-world assets such as securities, deposits and funds, and eventually originate tokenized loans of their own within a regulated framework.
Compliance & Regulatory Disclosures
Digital Asset-Backed Loans (DABL™) products are subject to collateral eligibility, and institutional underwriting standards. Not all applicants will qualify, and loan approval is not guaranteed. Digital asset values are volatile; loan-to-value (LTV) ratios and collateral liquidation policies apply. Digital assets held as loan collateral are secured with regulated, institutional-grade custodians that maintain insurance coverage, subject to the terms, limits, and exclusions of the applicable policies. Digital asset collateral is not insured by the NCUA or FDIC, and custody insurance does not protect against declines in market value.
