A few things: 1. You could have exposure to an asset that you want to hedge. So being able to purchase a financial instrument that's negatively correlated with

A few things: 1. You could have exposure to an asset that you want to hedge. So being able to purchase a financial instrument that's negatively correlated with an asset price is useful. 2. Putting downward price pressure on an asset sends an important market signal and reduces volatility 3. It provides income to owners of this asset as they have an option to lend to others and earn interest off of that. 4. Practically speaking, if you own something and you're free to sell it, and you can make an agreement to purchase at a future date at a specified price. So I don't see how you could be unable to lend it without arbitrary restriction around your ownership rights