Why Crypto Lender Nexo Is Returning to America Now

For years, the United States was the market crypto lenders couldn’t afford to touch. Now, according to Nexo US COO Neil Steinhardt, that calculation has changed.

“The horse left the barn,” Steinhardt tells Coinage of crypto adoption in America. “I'd like to believe that at the end of this administration, the rules will be understood and codified into law.”

That shift in tone marks a dramatic reversal from the post-FTX environment that forced many crypto lenders, exchanges, and yield platforms out of the U.S. entirely. Firms spent years navigating lawsuits, regulatory uncertainty, and an SEC approach critics argued governed largely through enforcement actions rather than rule making.

Now, with momentum building behind legislation like the GENIUS Act and Clarity Act, companies that once pulled back are beginning to re-enter the American market — betting that Washington is finally ready to establish clear guardrails for crypto businesses.

Among them is Nexo, one of the world’s largest crypto lenders.

“Nexo's been around since 2018, and we were in the US, [but] we pulled back to focus on our European business,” Steinhardt says. “And now I think it's the perfect time to come back into the United States.”

The return comes as crypto increasingly merges with traditional finance — a convergence Steinhardt says is already underway. Before joining Nexo, Steinhardt spent roughly 25 years in payments and regulated financial infrastructure, including roles involving money transmission, prepaid card programs, and fintech startups.

That background increasingly reflects where the crypto industry itself is headed. As firms like Coinbase roll out products resembling traditional brokerage and banking services, while institutions like Bank of America warm to digital assets, the dividing line between fintech and crypto is beginning to disappear.

“One of the beautiful things about digital assets are, you know, how can you grow them without selling them?” Steinhardt says. “We have products that allow you to borrow against your assets. We have abilities to generate yield off your assets. We have the ability to have a credit card to spend against your assets. But all without having to sell.”

For Nexo, that creates an opportunity not just to target crypto traders, but affluent investors. That vision of crypto-backed lending has existed for years. But after the collapses of firms like Celsius, BlockFi, and Genesis during the 2022 crypto contagion, many Americans became skeptical of the entire sector.

Nexo is now betting the environment has changed enough for consumers — and regulators — to revisit the model.

“The absence of regulation creates uncertainty and creates hesitancy,” Steinhardt says. “I think it's really amazing how this administration is kind of like laying down the guardrails and taking out some of the uncertainty in the market.”

Steinhardt argues the U.S. may actually be uniquely suited for crypto lending products because Americans already understand investing, leverage, and credit better than most of the world.

“The average American has three and a half credit cards ... and some markets in Europe are debit only,” he said. "The ability of the American consumer to be financially savvy and to be credit savvy, I think really lends itself very well to platforms like Nexo.”

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