How to start a loan
There are three paths to a loan as a borrower:- Fill an open lend offer for instant terms set by the lender
- Create your own borrow offer with the Ask for a Loan button, and wait for a lender to fill it
- Send a counter offer on an open lend offer whose terms are close but not quite right. See Counter Offers
Filling a lend offer
When you accept a lend offer, the loan starts immediately and the loan duration begins. Your collateral transits through the escrow and is locked onchain automatically, in a single transaction, and the USDC is transferred to you. If the offer allows partial fill, you can accept any amount at or above its Minimum Fill Amount; otherwise the offer must be filled in full. Before you confirm, the offer view shows what you lock, what you borrow, the cost under You pay (the interest plus the 25% upfront fee), and the repayment amount and due date. At this stage, you can add the loan’s maturity date to your calendar using the calendar button provided in the interface. Calendar reminders fire 2 hours before maturity.After maturity, the lender can manually claim the collateral at any time. The transfer is not automatic, but you cannot rely on any delay. Repayment timing is entirely your responsibility.
Creating a borrow offer
The Ask for a Loan button opens a step-by-step creation flow.Choose your conditions
Define the core parameters of the offer:
- Asset to borrow: USDC (fixed)
- Collateral asset and amount: choose from verified tokens on Jupiter, real-world assets (RWAs) such as xStocks, or non-fungible tokens (NFTs) from whitelisted collections
- LTV (Loan-to-Value): adjust via slider. The borrowed amount and LTV are linked: changing one updates the other. For NFT collateral, the LTV slider uses the collection floor price as the reference value
- APR (Annual Percentage Rate): set the rate you offer to pay
Set duration and expiration
- Loan duration: 1 to 30 days (presets: 3D, 7D, 30D)
- Offer expiration: 1 to 7 days, set by you. This is separate from the loan duration: the loan countdown only starts when the offer is accepted
Set fill preferences
- Allow partial fill: when enabled, your offer can be accepted partially, and you set a Minimum Fill Amount in USD. On borrow offers, the minimum is also displayed in collateral terms, so counterparties see directly how much collateral the minimum fill represents
- Partial fill is not available for offers using NFT collateral, since an NFT cannot be partially transferred
Publish
Your collateral must back the offer for it to be visible: the app deposits it from your wallet into your escrow automatically when the offer is created. See Settings & Notifications.
Borrowing costs
Upfront fee
25% of the estimated interest, paid in USDC when the loan starts.
Interest
The full interest for the agreed duration is always owed, regardless
of when you repay.
Your Escrow
Every Offerbook user has a dedicated escrow wallet, but as a borrower you
never manage it. Your collateral transits through it automatically in a
single transaction when you create or accept an offer, and returns
directly to your main wallet when you repay.
Your Positions
Everything you do as a borrower lives under Positions, filtered to the Borrowing side:- Loans — follows each loan through its statuses: Active, Repaid, Expired, Defaulted.
- Offers — your open borrow offers. Cancel them before they are filled, or renew them once expired.
Repayment
Repay from Positions > Loans, using the action button on the right of the loan’s row. You sign a transaction that returns the principal plus interest to the lender and unlocks your collateral.You repay
Any time before maturity — or even after, as long as the lender has not
claimed. The collateral returns directly to your wallet. Early repayment
does not reduce the cost: the full interest is owed whenever you repay.
You do not repay
Past maturity, the lender can claim your collateral by signing a
transaction. This is not a liquidation: no market sale, the collateral
is transferred directly to the lender and the loan is marked Defaulted.
You keep the borrowed USDC, but the collateral is gone.
Examples
Accessing liquidity against a held asset
A user holds a tokenized onchain asset valued at approximately $10,000, with limited onchain liquidity. Rather than selling the asset, they want to access USDC liquidity for a short period. They create a borrow offer with the following terms:| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Collateral | Onchain asset valued at ~$10,000 |
| Borrowed asset | 8,000 USDC |
| LTV | 80% |
| Loan duration | 3 days |
| Fixed APR | 35% |
If the borrower repays
At maturity, the borrower repays the borrowed amount plus interest:| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Interest paid | ~$23 for the 3-day loan |
| Fee at loan start (25% of estimated interest, paid by borrower) | ~$5.75 |
| Fee at repayment (10% of interest, deducted from lender’s return) | ~$2.30 |
| Interest received by the lender | ~$20.70 |
If the borrower does not repay
After maturity, the lender can claim the collateral by signing a transaction: a 0.1% fee is deducted from the collateral, and the rest is sent to the lender (no fee on NFT or RWA collateral). The borrower can still repay and recover the collateral until the lender claims.Insurance: protecting against a price drop
The same borrow mechanic can protect against a downside on a volatile asset you want to keep exposure to. This use case is surfaced as Get Insured in the interface, but it relies on the same loan flow as any other borrow offer. A user holds an asset valued at approximately $1,500 and is concerned about a price drop over the next few days, but does not want to sell. By creating a borrow offer using this asset as collateral, they receive USDC immediately, and decide at maturity whether to repay (and recover the asset) or not (and keep the USDC).| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Collateral | Asset valued at ~$1,500 |
| Borrowed asset | 1,000 USDC |
| LTV | ~67% |
| Loan duration | 3 days |
- The asset stays above 1,000 USDC: the user repays (principal + interest + fees) and recovers the collateral. The cost is the interest plus the 25% upfront fee — the price of the protection.
- The asset drops below 1,000 USDC: the user can choose not to repay. The lender claims the collateral, and the user keeps the 1,000 USDC, now worth more than the depreciated asset.
Mistakes to avoid
Forgetting loan maturity
Forgetting loan maturity
Because there are no margin calls during the loan, borrowers may overlook loan maturity. After maturity, the lender can claim your collateral at any time. Use the calendar reminder at offer acceptance to stay on track.
Assuming early repayment reduces interest
Assuming early repayment reduces interest
You can repay at any time before maturity, but the full interest for the agreed loan duration is always owed. There is no partial interest or fee reduction for early repayment.
Setting an unrealistic APR
Setting an unrealistic APR
APR is what balances an offer relative to its collateral, LTV, and duration. Offers with rates significantly out of line with current market conditions may remain unmatched. When defining an APR, think about how all parameters work together rather than focusing on a single value.