LOAN CHARTS

The charts behind the ranking

Buffers, LTV versus APR, the rate curve, the factor heatmap, and loan versus sell. The ranked list and the 3-year cost comparison stay on the loans page.

LIQUIDATION SURVIVABILITY

How deep a BTC drawdown can your loan survive?

At lender default LTV. The bar shows the BTC drawdown — from the opening price — at which the loan would liquidate without added collateral.

Wide buffer · 45%+ Mid · 35-45% Tight · <35%

LenderSurvivable drawdownLiq. LTV

Arch

25%80%

Ledn

38%80%

Coinbase / Morpho

13%86%

Strike

41%85%

Nexo

40%83%

YouHodler

5%95%

At lender default LTV. Cure windows and warnings vary — see each review.

SAFETY-BUFFER BAND · 10 OF 16 LENDERS

How far can Bitcoin fall before the call — and before the sale?

Each bar is one lender, from your opening LTV outward. The first band is the cure zone — the BTC drawdown that triggers a margin call, where you can still post collateral or repay. The second is the danger zone — the further drop to forced liquidation. A single LTV number hides this gap; the wider the bar, the deeper a crash your loan survives.

Cure zone — margin call (add collateral / repay)Danger zone — on to forced liquidation

Assumes each lender's typical opening LTV (longest published term). Drawdown = BTC price fall that lifts that position to the margin-call / liquidation LTV. DeFi protocols with no separate margin call (e.g. Aave) show one danger band straight to liquidation. Unchained and Xapo Bank do not publish a liquidation threshold, so there is no buffer to draw. Milo does not publish a liquidation threshold, so there is no buffer to draw. Aave and Maker (Sky) do not publish an opening LTV or a liquidation threshold, so there is no buffer to draw. Lava is in the 16-lender ranking and left off this chart: opening LTV is already at the liquidation threshold on file, so there is no price-drop buffer to draw. Source: published lender margin-call and liquidation thresholds. Pledge loan research, methodology v3.2.

BORROW vs SELL · TAX MATH

The case for borrowing isn't the rate. It's the tax bill you skip.

Same cash. Two paths. Adjust the sliders below to model your situation — both panels recompute live.

Cash needed$20k

Loan APR4.39%

Years to hold3 yrs

Not tax advice. Federal numbers only. Loan path assumes no margin call.

Path A · Sell BTC

Enter a tax rate to estimate BTC sold

Gross sale—Capital gain (cost basis $40k)—Tax owedEnter a rate

Total cost today—

Path B · Borrow at 4.39%

Borrow $20,000 at 4.39% APR for 3 years

Loan principal$20,000Interest × 3 years−$2,634

The gap, before BTC even moves

Enter a marginal tax rate to compare the tax bill with loan interest. A blank rate is not treated as 0%.

Compare loans

LTV vs APR · ALL 11 LENDERS

The real trade-off:
how much you can borrow vs how much it costs.

Each dot is one lender. X-axis is the highest LTV they'll write. Y-axis is their lowest published APR. Lower-left is the safety sweet spot: less leverage, less cost. Upper-right is yield-chase territory — high LTV gets you more dollars but at meaningfully worse rates.

DeFi · non-custodialMultisig / collaborativeCeFi · custodialHighest score in category

LTV = highest tier offered across published terms. APR = lowest tier published (live for DeFi pools where available).

APR TERM STRUCTURE · 11 FIXED-RATE LENDERS

The rate is a curve, not a point.

Each line is one lender's published APR plotted across the loan terms it offers. Most desks quote a single flat rate for every term (a horizontal line); a few publish just one term (a dot). SALT Lending is the exception that proves the rule — it prices 12mo / 36mo / 60mo at 7.49% / 8.24% / 8.49%, a genuine upward-sloping curve. Longer money costs more.

Highlighted — real term curveFlat-rate lender (one APR, all terms)Single published term

APR = lowest published fixed rate per term (origination fees excluded). Term axis is ordinal, not to scale.

Plotted separately — floating DeFi. Aave (4.39–5.19%) prices on a governance- or utilisation-set basis that moves with the market, so the published figures are an indicative band rather than a committed term curve. They are excluded from the lines above so a non-quote rate can't masquerade as a fixed offer.

Source: lender disclosures and rate pages, verified October 11, 2026. Each line merges every product a lender offers into one APR-by-term ladder; SALT's 12 / 36 / 60-month tiers are three products under one desk. Advertised “from” rates often reflect the lowest LTV or largest-loan tier; your quote may differ. Not financial advice.

8-FACTOR SAFETY MATRIX · 17 SCORED LENDERS

Where every lender is strong — and where the field is soft.

Sub-score (0–10)

4 weaker10 stronger

Each block is one lender; the eight tiles are its safety factors (label · weight% · 0–10 score), and the chip top-right is the weighted total. The ◆ dashed tile marks the cohort's softest factor (loss protection).

How to read it. Each cell is one lender's 0–10 score on one safety factor; the column header carries that factor's weight in the overall score. The Weighted column is the weighted average of the eight cells in its row — the same number that ranks the lenders above. Reading down a column shows where the whole field is strong or soft: loss protection is the cohort's softest factor (field average 5.1 (Weak)), because few BTC lenders publish named insurance or a deposit-protection scheme — while rehypothecation policy is its strongest (field average 7.6 (Solid)). Unchained tops the matrix at 9.0 (Strong).

Source: Pledge loan research, methodology v3.2 (8 factors, weights summing to 100%), snapshot Last refreshed Oct 11, 2026 · today. Sub-scores are best-effort grades from public disclosure; the weighted total is recomputed from the published weights, so it cannot drift from the ranking. Rows marked * carry a pending-confidence score (thinner public evidence). Scores are editorial judgments, not a guarantee of safety. Not investment advice.