As one of the world's largest online financial markets, China is currently going through a quiet crisis: Many Internet-based money lenders are sinking, along with the funds they owe to their creditors.

The crisis may last into the middle of the year and incur a total loss of 100 billion yuan ($16 billion) to the creditors, mostly individuals with small savings, according to Guan Jianzhong, president of the Chinese ratings agency Dagong Global.

Internet-based instant lending and borrowing between strangers is called peer-to-peer lending. And the websites enabling such transactions are called P2P platforms.