Bitcoin-backed loans are increasingly being used for tuition, emergency expenses, business cash flow and major purchases as borrowers seek liquidity without selling BTC. According to CoinDesk, SALT Lending and Ledn said the trend shows bitcoin-backed finance moving beyond speculation and toward mainstream credit, with lenders also pushing fixed-rate products and looking beyond bitcoin to hard assets such as gold. Ledn said it has funded more than $11 billion in loans to date and expects that to grow to $1 trillion in coming years.