Crypto Millionaires Leverage Decentralized Finance for Their Ultra-Luxurious Lifestyle

When a person’s assets are mostly composed of bitcoin and ether, accessing credit becomes a unique challenge. Decentralized finance offers solutions that transform how ultra-wealthy groups manage their digital wealth without having to sell assets that continue to grow.

By 2025, the global crypto millionaire population has reached 241,700, a 40% increase from the previous year. As this growth continues, more individuals with wealth held in digital form are seeking ways to finance their luxurious lifestyles—from luxury yachts to vacations at the Cannes Film Festival—without relinquishing their valuable crypto assets.

The Problem: When Traditional Banks Reject Crypto Assets

Imagine an investor with a portfolio including a $5 million house in Switzerland and another $5 million beachfront property in Miami. They want to fund a few months at the St. Moritz resort and attend exclusive events in Cannes, plus make major renovations to their private yacht. In the traditional banking system, they could contact their bank and use their real estate assets as collateral for a flexible short-term loan.

But what if most of their assets are in bitcoin, ethereum, or other digital tokens? This is where the traditional system fails. Private banks are usually reluctant—or even refuse—to accept crypto as loan collateral. They require tax reports, strict credit checks, and processes that can take up to a week.

For groups with significant crypto assets, this solution is clearly inadequate. “This is a challenge we see more and more,” said Jerome de Tychey, founder of Cometh, a company that recently became one of the few in France to obtain a Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) license.

The Solution: Decentralized Finance as a Modern Alternative

Those familiar with the crypto ecosystem can easily add ether tokens to lending platforms like Aave, then withdraw stablecoins for their cash needs. However, for someone building wealth solely through crypto investments—seeing their value grow exponentially without delving into technical mechanics—this process can feel complicated and intimidating.

This is where Cometh and similar services come into play. They help family offices and high-net-worth clients navigate the complex decentralized financial landscape. Cometh designs strategies involving depositing bitcoin into Aave, placing USDC in Morpho, or providing ether liquidity against bitcoin on Uniswap—all aimed at creating flexible credit pathways similar to traditional “Lombard” loans but operating entirely on the blockchain.

These types of loans—secured with digital assets as collateral—allow borrowers to access funds quickly without selling their long-term investments, avoiding capital gains tax implications, and maintaining benefits such as asset appreciation or dividend payments from their holdings.

Comparison: Speed vs. Complexity

Decentralized finance offers significant advantages in speed. A bitcoin-backed loan can be processed in less than 30 seconds on some platforms—compared to traditional Lombard loans that can take up to 7 days to complete through private banks.

Additionally, DeFi protocols are “permissionless,” meaning no central authority checks credit history or verifies borrower identity. For those valuing privacy and anonymity in their financial transactions, this is a major additional benefit.

However, this speed comes with trade-offs. Crypto-based loans carry substantial volatility risks. If the value of the digital assets used as collateral suddenly drops sharply—say, bitcoin’s price falls 20% within hours—smart contracts can automatically liquidate the borrower’s collateral to protect the protocol from losses. This means borrowers not only lose their loan funds but also part of their collateral.

Counterparty risk is also an important consideration. Not all DeFi protocols have the same security levels, and in some cases, smart contract errors can lead to total losses.

Innovation: Bringing DeFi to Traditional Assets

After securing the MiCA license, Cometh is exploring ways to apply DeFi logic to traditional securities—stocks, bonds, and derivatives—by leveraging the International Securities Identification Number (ISIN) as their digital identifier.

Their vision is to enable someone holding Tesla shares in a traditional account to access loans similarly to how they might collateralize bitcoin on Aave. ISIN-based codes will be stored in dedicated funds, creating a bridge between the traditional banking world and the digital ecosystem.

De Tychey calls this approach “tradfi-kasi DeFi”—essentially, taking the principles of transparency, speed, and accessibility from decentralized finance and applying them to familiar traditional financial instruments for the upper middle class and ultra-wealthy.

Broader Trends: The Future of Asset Management

This phenomenon reflects a broader market reality: there is a large and growing segment of ultra-wealthy individuals whose primary assets are in crypto. When the traditional banking system cannot—or will not—serve their needs, they seek innovative alternatives.

Decentralized finance, although still considered advanced and complex by many, offers unmatched flexibility and speed. For those with substantial digital funds and a desire to maintain exposure to the crypto markets, DeFi platforms and facilitators like Cometh are becoming increasingly vital bridges between these two evolving financial worlds.