The last major bear market nearly wiped out the entire crypto-lending industry. Now, it’s staging a major comeback, with a new breed of creditors looking to step into the void and satisfy the market’s perennial appetite for debt. 

Lenders ranging from traditional banks to crypto native firms have either begun or are in the process of providing capital, facilitating an uptick in a range of market activities from amplifying bets with leverage to providing short-term liquidity needed for trading.    

This month alone, Cantor Fitzgerald, the financial-services firm previously led by U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Bitcoin financing business with initial capital of $2 billion. Meanwhile, Bitcoin software firm Blockstream Corp. secured a multi-billion dollar investment in its crypto lending funds. And crypto wealth manager Xapo Bank began offering Bitcoin-backed loans up to $1 million. 

“The new lenders will be much more institutional in nature,” said David Mercer, chief executive of the institutional trading platform LMAX Group. “More banks will enter the space and provide credit mechanisms to some of the largest institutions you can imagine to trade these assets.” 

Crypto lending surged in the lead up to the market bull run in 2021, with the rise of native lenders such as Genesis Global Capital, Celsius Network and BlockFi. Those firms ended up underwriting unsecured loans to hedge funds or exchanges that blew up, due in part to a plunge in crypto prices. All three subsequently filed for bankruptcy, leaving traders, prime brokers and market makers with much less liquidity and access to the capital markets.  

Risk-management challenges

“There haven’t been a lot of people willing to give leverage, all the undercollateralized lending went away,” said Rob Hadick, general partner at crypto venture firm Dragonfly. “There are not many people, if anyone, that are good at understanding how to risk-manage crypto. It has been quite a bit of an issue for a lot of people.” 

Crypto exchanges, prime brokers and market makers sought to help fill the void in the absence of industry-native lenders and traditional financial institutions that were willing to lend to crypto firms, in part because of the crackdown on the sector during the Biden administration. 

“With the new administration, I think that regulators will have a more reasonable regime and approach and perhaps the banks will get more involved,” said Bitstamp U.S.A. CEO Bobby Zagotta. 

Bitcoin-backed loans have been one of the more common options for crypto firms to source cash and boost short-term liquidity. However, traditional financial institutions such as banks have still steered clear given the high volatility that comes with the cryptocurrency while it serves as collateral.  

“The majority of the demand for borrowing today in digital assets is around cash,” said Adam Sporn, head of prime brokerage and U.S. institutional sales at BitGo. “It has been a constraint because you don’t have any large banks that are lending into the space.” 

Trump effect

Industry participants say crypto lending is poised to grow to an even larger scale with more traditional institutions now open to getting involved because U.S. President Donald Trump is supporting policies and regulations that are favorable to the sector. 

“We have seen excitement from more traditional lenders as they have gotten more comfort from the current administration, legislation and the regulators are going to allow them to do that,” Dragonfly’s Hadick said.  

That could lead to Bitcoin-backed loans that are supported by larger balance sheets and more sophisticated risk-management mechanisms at traditional financial institutions, Mercer of LMAX said. 

So far, crypto lending has come back in a more conservative fashion with lower loan-to-value ratios, meaning borrowers are required to make larger down payments to reduce lending risks. 

“There is still not a lot of interest in undercollateralized loans yet,” Hadick said. “If you can get undercollateralized lending for prime brokers, trading desks and other institutional counterparties, that will improve liquidity and the general function of the market.” 

While growing demand for such services coupled with a more crypto-friendly administration have paved the way for another boom in crypto lending, credit risks remain a key challenge for a nascent asset class that is known for its high volatility.

“I remain skeptical crypto natives can spontaneously invent hundreds of years of credit lessons and instead think it requires expertise from outside the industry coming in,” said Austin Campbell, adjunct professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business and the CEO of stablecoin company WSPN USA, noting he is more optimistic on traditional institutions’ involvement.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

• LinkedIn’s editor-in-chief has confirmed the job market is ‘not great’. Its new report reveals the top skills to have right now if you want to up your chances of landing a job—and it turns out, being able to squash workplace drama is one of them amid layoffs and RTO mandates.

Job opportunities seem to have dried up, as candidates are sending out hundreds of applications to be faced with ‘ghost’ postings and steep competition. But talent could have a leg-up if they tap into some of the fastest growing skills in the struggling job marketplace. 

“It’s not a disaster, but it’s not great out there,” LinkedIn’s editor-in-chief Dan Roth said in an interview with TODAY. “Which is why it’s so important to know what skills you need to have to look better when you’re applying.”

About 54% of Americans plan to look for a new job in 2025, according to Roth, but hiring has been down 3.4% year-over-year. He added that the fight for opportunities has heated up, too—there’s currently about 2.5 applications for every open job, whereas right after the pandemic the ratio was about 1:1. 

Highly qualified job-seekers are competing in the same arena for a shrinking number of opportunities—but LinkedIn found there are some surefire skills to have to get noticed by hiring managers. 

Conflict mitigation is a top skill to get hired in 2025

There’s been a lot of turmoil in the workforce—from wildly unpopular RTO mandates to layoffs alongside AI optimization, to clashing views in the office. Without employees who know how to manage the tension, cultural problems can bubble over into disengagement and resentment. 

It’s why conflict mitigation—being able to foster collaboration and lead agile teams in times of strife and success—is currently the second fastest-growing skill, according to LinkedIn’s data. 

When analyzing what skills were being added to U.S. users’ profiles, what skills people who got hired had, and what skills employers are adding to postings, squashing workplace beef reigned supreme. 

Common job titles that include this increasingly popular skill include administrative assistants, project managers, and customer service representatives. And it is most notably in demand in the tech industry, as well as, IT consulting, and higher education. These sectors have been particularly hit hard by organizational changes, from China’s foreign chips competition, political impacts among U.S. schooling, and AI overhauling the workforce.

The ability for both leaders and workers to be able to navigate rough waters has been a growing precedent. Emotional intelligence is a growing qualifier when it comes to vetting executives, LinkedIn found last year—from 2018 to 2024, there was a 31% increase in these C-suite leaders featuring soft skills on their profiles. Five capabilities they often advertised included effective presentations, strategic thinking, communication, strategic vision, and conflict resolution.

Roth added that conflict mitigation has also grown in importance as employees of vastly different age groups try to find common ground. 

“For the first time we have five generations working together in the workforce,” Roth said. “And so you’ve got the situation where people think differently—how do you deal with conflict at the office? AI cannot do that well today.”

LinkedIn’s list shows that other human skills are still in demand, including adaptability, innovative thinking, public speaking, and customer engagement. While AI literacy still ranks at the top, it highlights that employers aren’t blind to the importance of human skills too. 

Other hot skills for 2025—with AI literacy at the forefront

If the AI embroilment between Meta, OpenAI, DeepSeek, and Nvidia tells you anything about the industry, it is that the advanced tech is the new frontier of business. Not only is AI relevant to Silicon Valley titans—employers everywhere now expect staffers to use the tools on the job.

AI literacy was ranked the number one skill on the rise in 2025, according to LinkedIn’s recent analysis. Common jobs that look for these capabilities are software engineers, product managers, and CEOs—and mainly span across tech, IT, and higher education industries.

But the skill doesn’t entail being able to write code—only know how to best apply it to one’s role.

“This is not a ‘go learn to code’ moment,’ this is ‘get familiar with how to use AI,’ try out the tools, think about how to apply them in any role you have in any job you’ve got,” Roth said in the interview. 

Other skills with more technical, type-A uses also made the list—including process optimization, solution-based selling, and large language model (LLM) development and application. But Roth added that while the rise in AI has naturally increased the need for those technical abilities, it’s also had the opposite effect. 

As more companies are applying the technology across their organizations—from HR departments, to frontline workers—it’s exacerbated a desire for human soft skills. And LinkedIn’s leadership board of the top skills for 2025 shows how desperately they’re needed.  

The top five fastest-growing skills in the U.S. for 2025

1. AI literacy: The ability to understand and utilize tools, and harness that technology for business purposes
2. Conflict mitigation: The ability to navigate workplace conflicts, foster collaboration, and lead agile teams
3. Adaptability: The ability to continuously learn and maintain resilience 
4. Process Optimization: The ability to drive operational efficiency and cost-effectiveness to stay competitive 
5. Innovative thinking: The ability to problem-solve creatively as AI transforms the work landscape

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

During a quarterly earnings call on March 4, Target reported that quarterly net sales declined 3.1%, while in February, when only the first three days were included in the quarter, CEO Brian Cornell stated that there was a “sales decline,” without being specific.

Then Target executives all but led a singalong of “Peter Cottontail” on the call, mentioning Easter five times, specifically the windfall the company expected leading up to the holiday.

“We had record sales [for] Valentine’s Day,” Rick Gomez, Target’s chief commercial officer, said during the call. “That bodes really well for Easter. So we are encouraged by that and looking forward to Easter.”

What may not bode so well, however, is that the week of March 3 (which included Ash Wednesday, the start of Lent) marked the beginning of a national Lenten boycott of Target, which goes through Easter. Spearheaded by Black clergy, the protest highlights that Target, after years of championing racial justice and social justice, rolled back its diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) program in January. The protest had a goal of signing up 100,000 consumers to participate; more than 150,000 had signed up when this story was published.

Retail Brew asked Target to comment on the protest and how it might impact Easter sales. In an email response, Emily Bisek, senior crisis communications manager at Target, responded only to, in her words, “affirm that we do not have anything new to share at this time.”

There has been much beard-stroking and teeth-gnashing over whether the one-day February 28 “economic boycott” against numerous companies was effective. But the Target Fast, as organizers refer to the protest, could pack a wallop.

Besides the more than 40-day duration and the sheer number of participants, there’s the matter of Easter. If Target is banking on brisk sales at the same time legions of Christians vow to not shop there until after Easter, it begs the question: Has Target put all its eggs in the wrong basket?

“An insult at the highest level”: Initiated by Jamal Harrison Bryant, senior pastor of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church outside of Atlanta, the protest has a website where participants are encouraged to sign on.

“This is a fast for accountability,” the website states. “A fast for justice. A fast for a future where corporations do not bow to pressure at the expense of marginalized communities.”

The website estimates that Black consumers spend $12 million daily at Target.

“The African-American community has been disrespected after loyal consumerism,” Bryant told Fortune. “For the company to turn its back on us is an insult at the highest level.”

Kevin Brockenbrough, a brand strategist who’s consulted with retailers and brands for more than 25 years, often on what he called “multicultural” campaigns, said the influence of Black pastors was evident during the pandemic, when they urged congregants to forego their hesitancy and get the Covid vaccine.

“When the Black pastors stepped up and said, ‘Get the shot,’ people got the shot,” Brockenbrough told Retail Brew.

He consulted with JC Penney on multicultural campaigns in the past, and the retailer paid particular attention to Easter.

“A lot of the multicultural families were very religious, and part of going to church was showing up in your new Easter clothes,” he said.

Brockenbrough said that Black consumers have more of an affinity for Target than other retailers, owing not only to the company’s prior commitment to racial justice but also to the stores having more of a presence in cities than its biggest competitor, Walmart.

“Walmart is in small, rural areas; Target is in urban areas. Target is where Black people are,” Brockenbrough said. “So for Target to back away from DEI really feels a little bit like a slap in the face.”

With 100 being the average, Target overindexes on shoppers in urban areas at 110, or 38% of its shoppers, according to Numerator; Walmart underindexes with urban shoppers, at 94, or 32% of the shoppers. Walmart has more white shoppers than Target—65% compared to 62% at Walmart—but both have the same percentage of what Numerator calls “Black or African American” shoppers: 14%.

Rabbit hole: Diane Merians Penaloza, doctoral lecturer at the City University of New York’s School of Professional Studies, was dubious about Target’s Easter optimism.

“A lot of their ‘Easter is going to be awesome’ is wishful thinking,” Penaloza told Retail Brew. “Like, if they say it enough times, it will become true.”

While Penaloza believes Target misstepped on DEI, and that it’s taken a toll on the company, she thinks many who’ve stopped shopping there made the decision independent of organized boycotts.

“Do I think the DEI rollback has hurt them tremendously? Profoundly. Absolutely 100%,” she said. “Do I think it’s because of the boycott? No, the boycott doesn’t help, but it’s really people saying, ‘Yeah, not so much.’”

This report was written by Andrew Adam Newman and was originally published by Retail Brew.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com

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