Wall Street credit agency Moody's just issued its first credit rating to Bitcoin-backed bonds.
Moody's Ratings has assigned a provisional Ba2 rating to a pair of Bitcoin-backed revenue bonds to be issued through the Business Finance Authority of the State of New Hampshire.
A credit rating works much like a credit score for an individual borrower. It's an independent assessment of how likely a debt is to be repaid.
The firm says this is the first time a major credit agency has rated a bond directly collateralized by Bitcoin.
The Ba2 rating places them two notches below investment grade, in speculative territory—but the assignment itself marks a milestone.
The bonds are limited-recourse instruments, meaning no New Hampshire public funds are on the line. The state's Business Finance Authority is acting as a conduit issuer. Repayment comes solely from the liquidation of Bitcoin held in custody by BitGo Bank & Trust, Moody's explained in a press release.
Moody's said it applied a 72.06% advance rate and a two-day exposure period consistent with a Ba2 rating for Bitcoin collateral. "The advance rate reflects an assessment of Bitcoin's historical volatility and liquidity," the firm wrote in the release.
Initial overcollateralization is set at 1.60x, with a loan-to-value trigger at 1.40x that would force mandatory redemption if breached. That means if the price of Bitcoin falls low enough to be worth only 1.4 times the value of the loans, it will be liquidated.
The deal arrives as rated Bitcoin-linked debt has been gathering momentum.
It was five intermediate grades higher than DeFi lender Sky and Michael Saylor’s Strategy, which both received B- ratings last year.
But that deal hit turbulence in February when a sharp Bitcoin selloff triggered liquidations of roughly a quarter of the underlying loan pool.
The NH bonds have not yet priced. Moody's said in its release that a pre-sale report would be available soon.
"We continue to embrace innovation in finance and actively explore new avenues for digital finance ecosystem to access our credit assessments," Rajeev Bamra, head of strategy for digital economy at Moody’s Ratings, said at the time.
