Hilbert Finance takes in stablecoins from onchain depositors and puts the money into its loan book, through a partnership with Ember Protocol. Until now the loan book has only been funded off the blockchain.
Photo: Jonathan Granath, managing director of Hilbert Finance (left), and Ibra Barbery, co-founder of Ember Protocol (right).
Hilbert Finance, the lending division of Sweden's Hilbert Group, has entered a partnership with Ember Protocol on a product called hLEND. Investors approved by Hilbert Finance itself deposit stablecoins — cryptocurrency with a stable value — into a shared pool on the blockchain and receive a share of the pool in return. Hilbert Finance lends the money out against collateral worth more than the loan, picks the borrowers and manages the loans. hLEND has launched, and as at 31 August the pool held about two million dollars.
hLEND gives onchain users access to a lending business that until now has only been open to institutional counterparties through channels off the blockchain. The money deposited is spread across a portfolio of loans backed by collateral exceeding the loan amount.
Hilbert itself describes the point as letting lending volume grow without Hilbert Group putting its own balance sheet behind it. The announcement does not say how the pool is treated in the accounts, or who carries the loss if a loan defaults. hLEND is only one part of the division's wider loan book, and adds a funding channel on the blockchain alongside the existing ones outside it.
Ember Protocol supplies the infrastructure connecting onchain money to the lending business. The platform runs funds, pools and strategies across several blockchains and holds more than 110 million dollars in total value locked, according to DefiLlama. Ember's own pools could also become a source of deposits for hLEND.
The launch comes with a concrete incentive: 200 basis points, or two percentage points, of additional yield on deposits up to 15 million dollars for the first three months, on top of what the loan book itself returns. Ember has also committed one million dollars of its own money alongside the investors. They receive the yield after Hilbert Finance deducts a performance fee.
Anyone can inspect the pool directly on the blockchain, including its net asset value, total value locked and underlying holdings. Investors gain access to a lending business belonging to a listed company with a separate legal structure in which established institutional custodians hold the collateral. Only counterparties meeting Hilbert Finance's criteria and completing its onboarding are let in.
"Institutional lending should be secured and visible, and that is how we run the desk off the blockchain. hLEND applies the same standard onchain: overcollateralised loans, collateral in segregated custody accounts, and a pool anyone can inspect," says Jonathan Granath, managing director of Hilbert Finance.
"This partnership shows how institutional credit can be delivered onchain," says Ibra Barbery, co-founder of Ember Protocol. He says Hilbert Finance brings the underwriting, while Ember brings the infrastructure connecting institutional capital to that kind of lending.
Galaxy Research puts the market Hilbert is entering at around 56 billion dollars in total crypto-collateralised borrowing in the second quarter of 2026. Hilbert describes the two million as a deliberately measured start while the lending business scales up.
In its shareholder update of 8 September 2026, the group illustrates what volume means for earnings: at an average loan book of 100 million dollars and a spread of 100 to 200 basis points, annual spread income would be about one to two million dollars, and around three to six million dollars at 300 million dollars — before operating costs and credit losses. Hilbert stresses that the announcement is not an offer to invest in hLEND.
Hilbert Group AB is a quantitative investment company headquartered in Stockholm, listed on Nasdaq First North Growth Market under the ticker HILB B. Hilbert Finance is the group's division for lending, trading and payments.
Sources: Hilbert Group
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