How to start a loan
Everything starts from the Borrow view in the header. 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
The Borrow view
The Borrow view is built around a widget and the live offer list beneath it:- Collateral to lock: the collateral selector opens a searchable modal with category tabs (Owned, All, Collectibles, Bridged, DeFi, LSTs). You can select a single asset, several assets at once, or a collectible collection; the offer list then shows lend offers matching your selection.
- You borrow: the USDC amount, with Half and Max shortcuts based on what your selected collateral can support.
- If the requested amount exceeds what your wallet can back on the listed offers, a warning shows the maximum drawable amount with a one-click adjustment (for example, “Your wallet can draw up to 20 USDC on these offers, not 27 — Lower to 20”).
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 creation flow in three steps: Collateral, Terms, and Publish.Collateral
Define what you lock and what you borrow:
- You lock: the collateral asset and amount, capped by your wallet balance (Max shortcut available). Collateral can be a verified token, a real-world asset (RWA) such as xStocks, or a non-fungible token (NFT) from a whitelisted collection; for NFT collateral, the LTV reference is the collection floor price
- You borrow: the USDC amount, linked to the LTV (Loan-to-Value) slider: changing one updates the other. As you move the slider, an indicator estimates how attractive the terms are to lenders (for example, “Good chance to fill, reasonable collateral ratio”)
- Quick Pricing · LTV: presets to position your LTV: Recommended, Match best, and Beat market, computed against competing offers when they exist
Terms
Set the price and the duration:
- APR (Annual Percentage Rate): the rate is displayed all-in, including the fee (offer APR × 1.25, pricing in the 25% upfront fee), and compared to the market median (for example, “-2.5 vs median 22.5%”). The breakdown is shown underneath: on a 20% all-in APR, “Lender keeps 16% · 4% protocol fee”. See Fees and Costs
- Quick Pricing · APR: the same preset system as for LTV (Recommended, Match best, Beat market)
- Duration: 1 to 30 days, with presets (7d, 14d, 30d) and a fine-grained day stepper
- What you’ll pay: the interest over the duration and the exact repayment amount at maturity are displayed before you continue
- VS. MARKET: a fill score out of 100 positions your offer against live competition on a gauge from “Won’t fill” to “Fills fast”, with a plain-language verdict (for example, “Below market, 43/100 — softer than the median, it may sit for a while”) and your LTV compared to the market median. Browse all offers opens the competing offers
Publish
The Publish step offers two ways to put your terms on the market:
- Lock & list now creates the onchain borrow offer: your collateral is escrowed (the app deposits it from your wallet automatically) and the offer is listed, fillable instantly by any lender. It requires the collateral plus a little SOL for network fees and rent. See Settings & Notifications
- Just advertise terms posts an intent instead: a free signature, no SOL spent, nothing locked, and the collateral stays in your wallet. Lenders come to you, but the intent cannot be filled until you lock it as an offer. Your wallet must hold the advertised collateral to post it, so that advertised terms stay backed by a real balance
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. The fill score and the market comparisons in the creation flow exist precisely to surface this: offers with rates significantly out of line with current market conditions may remain unmatched. Think about how all parameters work together rather than focusing on a single value.