Sydneysider Johnny Phan says booming cryptocurrency prices are leading more Australians sitting on digital asset windfalls to his start-up Vield. The business makes loans to customers against the ballooning value of their crypto holdings, amid a broad price rally that is helping risk-taking Australians such as Mr Phan get rich quick.

“If you ask the banks or mortgage brokers to borrow against your crypto, they’ll tell you no way,” he said. “They’ll say, ‘sell the crypto, and come back to us with the cash, then we can talk’. But lots of people don’t want to sell as they expect prices to keep rising, so we lend to them against bitcoin and ethereum.”