How the ultra-wealthy are using bitcoin to fund their yacht upgrades and Cannes trips

Finance Share Share this article Copy link X icon X (Twitter) LinkedIn Facebook Email How the ultra-wealthy are using bitcoin to fund their yacht upgrades and Cannes trips Cometh founder Jerome de Tychey is applying DeFi lending and borrowing on platforms like Aave, Morpho, and Uniswap to structures that help the ultra-wealthy secure loans against their massive crypto fortunes. By Ian Allison | Edited by Sheldon Reback , Aoyon Ashraf Jan 25, 2026, 4:00 p.m. Make us preferred on Google How the ultra-wealthy are using bitcoin to fund their yacht upgrades (Frédéric Soltan/Corbis, Getty Images) and Cannes trips What to know : Wealthy investors who hold much of their fortune in crypto are increasingly turning to decentralized finance platforms to secure flexible credit lines without selling their digital assets. Firms like Cometh help family offices and other rich clients navigate complex DeFi tools, using assets such as bitcoin, ether and stablecoins to replicate traditional Lombard-style collateralized loans. DeFi loans can be faster and more anonymous than traditional bank credit but carry volatility and liquidation risks, and Cometh is also experimenting with applying DeFi strategies to traditional securities via ISIN-based tokenization. Let's say an investor has a house in Switzerland and a beach house in Miami. They're worth, perhaps, $10 million. But what they are really looking for right now is a line of credit for some time on the slopes at St. Moritz, a trip to the Cannes film festival and a few upgrades to the yacht. In traditional finance, they might be able to approach their bank and use those assets to secure a flexible, short-term loan. However, if a substantial part of the investor's assets is in crypto, it's likely much harder. STORY CONTINUES BELOW Don't miss another story. Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today . See all newsletters Sign me up By signing up, you will receive emails about CoinDesk products and you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . And it seems there are a large number of ultra-rich people who made their fortunes in crypto. In 2025 alone, a survey by Henley & Partners found that the global population of crypto millionaires had reached 241,700, up 40% from the previous year . So how do these crypto-rich investors use their fortune to supplement their lavish lifestyle? Their traditional bank likely won't even touch crypto, and if selling those crypto assets is out of the question, where do they turn? This is when a sophisticated decentralized finance (DeFi) lending strategies comes into play, said Jerome de Tychey, the founder of Cometh, a DeFi-for-businesses facilitator that recently became one of the few firms in France to gain a Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) license. For someone who is crypto native, they could simply take their ether ETH $ 2,937.59 tokens, add them to a lending platform like Aave and withdraw stablecoins. However, for someone who made their fortune by just buying crypto and watching it grow, and who is not familiar with the DeFi process, it can be bewildering, de Tychey said. “This is still a bit too complicated and too sophisticated for the layman, and so it’s typically the kind of thing we do to help family offices, for example, who have a good amount of crypto and want a credit line,” he said in an interview at the CfC St Moritz crypto conference. On a day-to-day basis, wealthy clients often use collateral loans, also known as Lombard loans or Lombard credit, to secure loans against their assets. These are flexible, short-term loans secured by the pledge of assets such as stocks, bonds, or investment portfolios. They allow borrowers to access cash quickly without selling their investments, thereby avoiding capital gains tax and retaining benefits such as dividends. Typically, these clients have wealth in the tens or hundreds of millions of dollars, and their objective is to keep their assets stable while funding their lifestyle and expenses at the lowest rate possible. De Tychey, who is also the founder of the Ethereum Community Conference (EthCC) , said his firm adds a DeFi component to the equation that could involve bitcoin BTC $ 88,408.46 on Aave, USDC on Morpho, or perhaps providing liquidity on ether ETH $ 2,937.59 to BTC on Uniswap, for example. DeFi vs TradFi loans Borrowing using crypto assets also offers perks, such as a faster lending process. For example, a loan backed by bitcoin could be processed in as little as 30 seconds on some platforms, whereas a Lombard loan, using traditional assets as collateral, at a private bank might take up to 7 days. Also, traditional loans require credit checks and tax returns, while DeFi loans are permissionless (where code is the law and it doesn't care who the borrower is in some platforms), so anonymity is an additional perk for those who seek it. It also has some drawbacks. For example, crypto loans depend on counterparty risk and could be more volatile depending on the price of the crypto asset. For example, if the price of a digital asset suddenly drops, the smart contract or code could automatically liquidate a borrower's collateral. However, it all comes down to using an investor's crypto asset to secure a loan through a faster, more seamless process, rather than going to a traditional bank, where crypto might not be considered an asset to borrow against. 'Tradfi-cation of DeFi' Having snagged a MiCA license in France, Cometh is also working on ways to use DeFi strategies for stocks, bonds and derivatives using their identifying International Securities Identification Numbers (ISIN). To access debt using an account holding Tesla shares, for instance, ISIN-based codes need to be held in a dedicated fund, de Tychey said. “We are looking at these sorts of approaches done through dedicated private debt products that anyone with a title account can access. So that's a way of doing tokenization but the other way around; it's really a kind of 'tradfi-cation' of DeFi,” de Tychey said. CoinDesk Wealth More For You KuCoin Hits Record Market Share as 2025 Volumes Outpace Crypto Market By CoinDesk Research Dec 22, 2025 Commissioned by KuCoin KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market. What to know : KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025 , equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month , marking its strongest year on record. This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume , as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes , which slowed during periods of lower market volatility. Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split , each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line. Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity , reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover. Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity , indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes. 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