Retail Lending Ban

Definition ∞ A retail lending ban is a prohibition preventing financial entities from offering specific lending products or services to individual consumers. In the digital asset space, this typically refers to restrictions imposed by regulators on platforms that provide cryptocurrency-backed loans or yield-generating products to non-professional investors. Such bans aim to protect retail investors from high-risk, volatile, or unregulated financial offerings. They often arise from concerns about consumer protection, market stability, and the lack of transparent disclosures.
Context ∞ The discussion around retail lending bans centers on balancing investor protection with financial innovation, particularly in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector. A critical future development involves clearer regulatory definitions of what constitutes retail lending in crypto and the potential for licensed entities to offer regulated versions of these products.