Bitfinex Investor's Crypto Lending Startup Posts $2.3M in 2019 Revenue

China-based RenrenBit, a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency lending and wallet startup, said it earned $600,000 in net income on revenue of $2.3 million in 2019.

The startup, founded by well-known Chinese over-the-counter trader Zhao Dong, who's also an investor in Bitfinex and Binance, published an unaudited income statement on Monday as part of its commitment to revealing financial data when it raised $21 million in a token sale last year.

In addition, the 35-member team posted an unaudited balance sheet that shows, as of Dec. 31, it was holding about $168 million of customer assets in its wallets, which accounted for 70 percent of its liability.

While the earning numbers may not appear to be significant, RenrenBit's quarter-by-quarter growth rate is in line with the overall improved crypto market condition in 2019.

The firm reported revenue of $1.4 million in Q4 2019, which is more than four times that seen in Q1. Similarly, it brought home more than $640,000 in profit in the last quarter, after making a net loss of around $175,000 for the first three months of last year.

Founded by Zhao in November 2018, RenrenBit essentially brokers between lenders and borrowers seeking to borrow either Chinese yuan or crypto assets with other digital assets pledged as collateral. The firm makes money by charging around 15 percent of the profits on each loan.

Besides facilitating peer-to-peer lending, RenrenBit lends from its own capital. As of Dec. 31, the company had about $64 million in outstanding loans on its books.

The startup also offers crypto-to-crypto and yuan-to-crypto spot trading in its mobile app. It emerged as part of the growing landscape of crypto lending businesses in China and worldwide.

In July, Renrenbit conducted a sale of its ERC20-based RRB token, raising $21 million in the U.S. dollar-linked tether (USDT) stablecoin. RRB functions much like Binance's BNB token, being tradable and also utilized to offset transaction fees on RenrenBit.

Earlier last year, the firm raised $3 million in a Series A funding round with backing from investors such as Dragonfly Capital and crypto exchange Bitfinex.