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Start with the amount you actually receive
Write down the loan proceeds that reach you—not just the principal shown in the offer. If the lender deducts an origination or platform fee before disbursing the loan, your usable proceeds are lower than the stated principal. If a fee is added to the balance or paid from Bitcoin collateral, record that separately. The way a fee is collected changes the cash flows, but does not make the fee disappear.
Next, define the comparison: the amount you need, the currency you will receive, how long you expect to borrow, and when each payment will be due. Compare offers only on matching assumptions. A loan’s total cost depends on its term, payment schedule, fee base, and jurisdiction as well as its quoted rate.
List every expected payment and required fee
Use the agreement’s payment schedule for your expected holding period. Include interest and principal payments, any balloon or final payment, and the amount required to pay off the loan on your intended date. For an early payoff, check whether interest accrues through the payoff date and whether a prepayment charge applies.
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Include required origination, platform, custody, transfer, servicing, and other charges. Note for each fee whether it is paid upfront, withheld from proceeds, added to principal, or taken from collateral. Keep contingent default and liquidation costs separate from scheduled costs: they are possible downside costs, not necessarily part of the expected repayment.
Calculate scheduled repayment and finance charge
Add the payments and required fees due under the scenario you are evaluating. The resulting total is the scheduled amount you expect to pay. To find the interest-and-fee burden, compare the scheduled payments and required finance charges with the principal; also account separately for any fee withheld from proceeds when judging how much value you received. Unchained defines the finance charge as lifetime interest and origination fees, while APR measures yearly credit cost and includes interest and costs such as origination fees. Unchained’s loan information describes interest-only payments based on outstanding principal, simple annual interest, and a 365-day year.
Simple interest-only estimate
For a fixed principal that remains outstanding for a full year, a basic estimate is:
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Interest = principal × annual interest rate × years
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Use the contract’s day-count basis for loans accruing interest daily; Unchained’s cited description uses 365 days. The shortcut above does not fit an amortizing balance, variable rate, or a contract with different compounding or accrual rules. Use actual payment dates and the lender’s schedule for those cases.
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Calculate APR and compare total dollars
APR provides a yearly cost measure that includes interest and credit costs such as origination fees, but the lender’s calculation and the agreement’s cash flows matter. Record both the disclosed APR and the total dollars you expect to pay: APR helps compare yearly cost, while total dollars answers how much the borrowing scenario costs in cash terms. Compare both using the same proceeds, term, payment timing, and assumptions.
Understand how fee treatment changes the comparison
Published lender pages illustrate why it is important to inspect fee wording rather than compare headline rates alone. These are examples from the cited pages, not current universal recommendations or directly comparable offers.
| Lender and page context | Published fee or cost description | What to verify |
|---|---|---|
| Lantern Finance, rates page last updated June 26, 2026 | Starting APR includes base interest plus a 2% upfront fee. The page says rates and availability can depend on eligibility, jurisdiction, collateral, LTV, and agreement. | Whether an offer is available to you and how the APR and fee apply to your loan amount and term. |
| BTCBacked, page accessed October 4, 2026 | A one-time platform fee of 1.5% per year of the loan term, deducted from Bitcoin collateral, and a 5% liquidation fee if liquidation applies. | The fee base and period, how the collateral deduction is calculated, and when liquidation charges apply. |
| APX Lending, line-of-credit page | The page says there is no origination, early-prepayment, or unused-line fee and that interest is its only cost. It also says accrued interest is included in real-time LTV. | Whether the specific agreement has the same terms and how accrued interest affects your available collateral headroom. |
| Pledg, India pilot terms identified as of July 2026 | The pilot page describes an all-inclusive APR in its Key Fact Statement, a 70% margin-call level, and an 80% liquidation level. | That the pilot and its terms apply to your jurisdiction, eligibility, and loan agreement. |
A fee deducted from Bitcoin collateral is still a borrowing cost even if it does not reduce your cash proceeds on funding day. The pages above use different fee bases, products, jurisdictions, and terms, so their figures should not be ranked as if they described identical loans.
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Calculate LTV and assess collateral risk separately
Initial LTV is the loan value divided by the value of Bitcoin pledged, multiplied by 100:
Initial LTV = loan value ÷ current collateral value × 100
For example, if a loan’s value equals half the current value of the pledged Bitcoin, its initial LTV is 50%. This is only a starting snapshot. If Bitcoin’s price falls, collateral value falls and LTV can rise, even while you repay principal.
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Review the contract for the margin-call threshold, time allowed to respond, acceptable ways to cure the call, liquidation threshold, liquidation process, and related fees. Check whether accrued interest increases the balance used in the LTV calculation. Thresholds and procedures are lender-specific, not market-wide rules.
| Source and date | Published example | Qualification |
|---|---|---|
| CoinCorner definitions, updated April 17, 2026 | Defines LTV and provides its own warning, margin-call, and liquidation levels. | CoinCorner’s levels are lender-specific. |
| Onramp help page for partner Arch, accessed October 4, 2026 | Up to 50% initial LTV, a margin call at 70%, and possible partial liquidation at 80%. | Applies to the described partner Arch terms; another lender may use different thresholds. |
| Pledg India pilot page, terms identified as of July 2026 | 70% margin-call level and 80% liquidation level. | Pilot terms, not a universal threshold. |
When evaluating offers, compare starting LTV, trigger points, response time, permitted cure actions, the amount of collateral that may be sold, liquidation fees, and whether accrued interest raises measured debt. A lower scheduled interest cost does not by itself tell you how a loan behaves during a sharp Bitcoin price drop.
Simplified liquidation-price estimate
For fixed debt, with no fees or accrued interest, a simplified estimate is:
Liquidation BTC price ≈ debt ÷ (liquidation LTV × BTC units pledged)
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Use liquidation LTV as a decimal in this formula: for example, 80% is 0.80. This estimate is not a lender’s promise or a substitute for its formula. Agreements can include accrued charges, use specified price sources, or require particular cure procedures.
Use a calculator as a cross-check, not the contract
A Bitcoin loan calculator can help organize inputs such as loan amount, APR, term, origination fee, liquidation LTV, and margin-call buffer, and estimate collateral needs, liquidation price, repayment, and all-in cost. Orange Abacus’s Bitcoin Loan Calculator displays estimates from those kinds of inputs. Treat its output as an estimate: verify each assumption against the signed loan documents and the lender’s actual payment and liquidation rules.
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