In its first month live, Borrow on Bitcoin logged over $100 million in loan demand at a median loan-to-value ratio of 26.3%. Here’s what that says about a market traditional investors keep underestimating.
Bitcoin has given back nearly half its value since last year’s peak. ETF money is heading for the exits. Corporate treasuries are nursing their worst quarter in years. And yet the thousands of people who showed up this past month to borrow against their Bitcoin did something the crypto market rarely gets credit for: they kept their nerves.
In our first thirty days live, prospective borrowers ran over $100 million in loan demand through our calculator — at a median loan-to-value ratio of 26.3%. That is barely a third of what most lenders allow. In a market built on leverage, the restraint is the headline.
The typical borrower isn’t the one you picture
Two borrowers show up in our data, and they are nothing alike. The median one holds 1 BTC and wants $25k. The average one holds 6 BTC and wants $232k.
| Metric | Median | Mean |
|---|---|---|
| BTC held | ~1.0 | ~6.1 |
| Loan requested | ~$25,000 | ~$232,000 |
Total prospective loan demand, one month: $104,854,690 · Median LTV: 26.3%
The gap is the point. A broad base of small, retail-scale borrowers sits beneath a handful of whales who drag the average upward. However, there is consistency: loan to value rates are low and defensive. If margin triggers are between 50-80%, it means loans get called at Bitcoin prices between $19-31k.
What they borrow for
Follow the clicks through to lenders and the picture sharpens.
| Loan purpose | Share of lender outclicks |
|---|---|
| General | 77.3% |
| Business | 14.8% |
| Auto | 4.4% |
| Mortgage | 3.5% |
General purpose loans dominate but nearly 15% are cited for business purposes. Auto and mortgage loans round out the residual loan purposes.
(Measured by outclicks to lenders and the loan type selected)
The cars and mortgages that get away
The most revealing numbers are the ones that don’t convert.
Auto loans were one of our most-searched queries all month. They were also just 4.4% of clicks to a lender. Borrowers are curious about financing a car with Bitcoin; almost none follow through. Conventional auto loans are cheap and everywhere, and a crypto-backed version can’t yet beat them on price. We suspect that perhaps the desire stems from used car purchases which hold higher APRs but cannot yet confirm.
Mortgages are the same gap, but wider. Roughly 15% of the interest walking in the door is mortgage related. Just 3.5% of outbound clicks are. It is the widest curiosity-to-execution gap we track: a clear signal that people want a Bitcoin-collateralized route into a home, and that today’s lending stack isn’t built to give them one.
The translation for anyone building in this market: the demand is already here. The product isn’t.
Cheaper money, in a falling market
Rates went the opposite way from the price but the devil is in the details as some require origination fees and others bake it into an all-inclusive rate.
| BoB CeFi Rate Index | Value |
|---|---|
| Average APR | 10.42% |
| Change, month over month | −49 bps |
| Lowest APR tracked | 8.75% |
| Highest APR tracked | 11.49% |
| Average maximum LTV | 61% |
| Lenders tracked | 6 US CeFi lenders |
For context: BoB’s DeFi Rate Index — 27 on-chain markets — averages 9.94% APR, a touch below CeFi but with a far wider spread (3.56% to 47%), reflecting the variable, utilization-driven nature of on-chain rates.
The BoB CeFi Rate Index closed the month at 10.42% APR, down 49 basis points, even as the collateral behind those loans lost value. When borrowing costs fall while the asset falls, price isn’t setting the rate but competition likely is.
About Borrow on Bitcoin
Borrow on Bitcoin (BoB) is an independent comparison platform for Bitcoin-backed loans, tracking rates and terms across major lenders including Arch Lending, Ledn, Figure, Unchained, SALT, Strike, CoinRabbit, APX, and Coinbase. BoB publishes the BoB CeFi Rate Index, an aggregate benchmark of prevailing centralized Bitcoin-backed lending rates. BoB is published by Sypher Capital and is a comparison publisher — not a lender, broker, or registered investment advisor.
Web: borrowonbitcoin.com
Methodology note (for editors)
Loan size, BTC held, and LTV figures are drawn from thousands of scenarios run through the BoB loan calculator during BoB’s first month live; the LTV median excludes implausible entries. Loan-purpose figures reflect the share of clicks through to lenders and the loan type selected, not dollar-weighted volume. Query figures (auto as a top query; ~15% mortgage interest) reflect top-of-funnel user interest, measured separately from outclicks — the difference between the two is the “curiosity gap” described above. The BoB CeFi Rate Index is BoB’s proprietary aggregate of advertised CeFi Bitcoin-backed loan rates across six US lenders, refreshed weekly; figures as of the June 30, 2026 refresh. Market context (Bitcoin price, ETF flows) reflects public market data as of publication.