Lenders, Brokers Doubtful That Merchants Would Use Their Domain Names as Collateral if They Could

Only 26% of respondents said that merchants would use their business’s website domain name as collateral for a loan (presumably if they were given the option to). This according to an informal poll conducted on LinkedIn that asked that very question without any context or clarification. Forty eight percent of respondents straight up said that merchants would not use their domain name as collateral for a loan. Ironically, many secured loans with liens on all assets would already include domain names among those assets.

Back in April, deBanked predicted that lending specifically against a domain as collateral was a product likely to happen in the near future. The following month a domain name registrar partnered up with a peer-to-peer lending site that touted the use of blockchain technology. The first ever domain name loan executed by smart contract actually happened in January of this year, however, by deBanked.