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Pledge is independent research for Bitcoin-backed loans, ETFs, custody providers, and Digital Credit instruments. 78 products reviewed under one 8-factor framework, with sources linked on every row. This page answers the question every honest reader asks: why should I trust what you wrote?
No clickout pays Pledge as of now.
No lender, ETF, custodian, or stablecoin issuer pays Pledge for position.
Same framework applied to every product, every refresh.
Every entry has sources linked and a last-verified date.
It doesn't, yet. As of May 2026, Pledge has no affiliate links, no referral fees, no sponsored placements, and no paid rankings. Operating costs are personal. The site exists because the editorial work needed to be done — and the few existing comparison sites in this category are either undisclosed affiliate funnels or thin SEO content recommending products that imploded with customer funds.
Two channels, both disclosed inline at the moment they appear. Warm-intro fees on $1M+ loan referrals through the large-loan intake form — lenders pay Pledge a flat fee on closed loans; borrowers pay nothing. Affiliate links on select profile pages — never on the ranking itself, and only on products the methodology already ranks highly. Every monetized link will carry a clear ↗ AFFILIATE marker before it goes live.
New data. A product's sources update (its rates change, its custody model changes, its reserves disclosure changes, its operating history extends), and the 8-factor score recomputes. That's the only path. Affiliate revenue cannot move a product up the rank. The current #1 Bitcoin loan pick (Aave, a DeFi protocol) generates Pledge exactly $0 because DeFi protocols have no affiliate programs. The methodology picked it anyway. That structural commitment is the firewall.
We will never broker a loan, take custody of Bitcoin, manage funds, give investment advice, or sell our own products. We are not a registered broker-dealer, RIA, custodian, or stablecoin issuer. We do not collect commissions from borrowers, accept payment to feature a product on a category page, or place sponsored content next to ranked products. If we ever change one of these, it will be publicly announced before the change ships — not after.
Every page links to corrections@pledgebtc.io. Material errors trigger a public correction note on the affected product's profile page, including what was wrong and when it was fixed. Numbers tied to issuer dashboards (Strategy preferreds, ETF AUM, lender APRs) are sourced from named documents linked on each row; the last-verified date sits in the disclosure bar at the top of every page.
The methodology document is at /methodology: weighted factors, scoring formula, what each score means. The commercial-relationship disclosure is at /disclosure: the current status, the categories of relationship Pledge has and hasn't taken on, and the marker every monetized link will carry. The operating model — what Pledge is, who runs it, what it's built to do — is at /about.