[ahh]

> Loaning someone an asset at 0% is always worse than holding the asset.

Nit: if the carry cost of the asset is zero. This is _not_ true for dollars (at least at large corporate/pension fund/hedge fund scale) and various government securities have occasionally sold at negative nominal interest rates.

(It is, essentially, true for BTC, which is why your analysis is largely correct here, but there certainly are cases where one would reasonably lend USD or the like at 0%.)