Crypto-backed loans
Bitcoin treasury financing for companies and miners
Bitcoin treasury financing is credit a company raises against bitcoin it already holds, rather than selling it or issuing equity. SEC filings set out the sizes, the pledged collateral and the margin mechanics of facilities taken by listed miners and treasury companies, which is where a private borrower can read what the terms actually look like.
Key takeaways
- The largest disclosed pledge is 18,750 bitcoin. MARA Holdings entered two bitcoin-backed term loans on 4 August 2026, from Coinbase Credit and Two Prime Lending, and pledged bitcoin with a fair value of about US$1.2 billion as initial collateral.
- One covenant has been published in full. The 2022 MicroStrategy facility required the loan-to-value (LTV) to stay at or below 50%, with a cure that took it back to 25% or less.
- A corporate margin call runs through default. MARA's filing states that failing to post additional collateral is an event of default entitling the lender to liquidate the pledged bitcoin.
- Custody is negotiated, not assumed. Unchained's commercial loans put the collateral in a segregated sub-trust with keys held by Unchained, Fortis Bank and the borrowing company.
- Miner financing is a different security package. Galaxy describes it as typically secured by miner treasuries as well as site and infrastructure assets.
What the term covers
Three different transactions travel under this heading, underwritten differently. None is an execution service: buying or selling the coins at size is bitcoin OTC.
- Credit secured on treasury bitcoin. The company pledges coins it holds, receives US dollars or stablecoins, and lives with a margin regime for the life of the facility. It is the subject of the filings below.
- Miner financing secured on plant. Debt raised against machines, sites and infrastructure, not marked to a live price every minute. Galaxy publishes a hybrid: financing for bitcoin miners “typically secured by miner treasuries as well as site and infrastructure assets”.
- Structured and hedged variants. Galaxy describes “Collar Loans” as non-recourse financing with no margin calls, and Two Prime describes over-collateralized loans for institutional borrowers with qualified custodians. Galaxy publishes no figures, no eligibility terms and no default terms for collar loans, so what happens on a missed payment is whatever the documents say.
These are dated descriptions of what each firm publishes, not a ranking; naming a firm implies no relationship with Crypto Loans HQ (see how we are paid).
What the filings show
A private company negotiating its first facility usually works without comparables. Listed borrowers supply them: a bitcoin-backed loan of any size lands in a quarterly report or an 8-K.
| Borrower and date | Lender | Size and pricing disclosed | Collateral | Margin or covenant mechanics disclosed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MARA Holdings, 4 August 2026 | Coinbase Credit, Inc. | US$450.0 million commitment (US$300.0 million new money, US$150.0 million refinanced), at the Fed Funds mid rate plus 3.875%, maturing 4 August 2028 with a one-year automatic extension | 18,750 bitcoin, fair value about US$1.2 billion, as initial collateral across both loans | Collateral below the margin call limit must be topped up promptly; failure is an event of default with a right to liquidate |
| MARA Holdings, 4 August 2026 | Two Prime Lending Limited | US$300.0 million at a fixed 7.65%, maturing 3 August 2028 | As above | As above |
| MacroStrategy (MicroStrategy), 23 March 2022 | Silvergate Bank | US$205.0 million term loan; interest monthly in arrears, principal at maturity | Bitcoin worth about US$820.0 million at closing | LTV to stay at or below 50%; above that, add bitcoin or prepay to 25% or less, or 35% with a 25 basis point rate step-up |
| Metaplanet, reported November 2025 | Not named in the reports | A US$500 million bitcoin-collateralized credit facility, with a US$130 million draw reported | Not published | Not published |
| Sources: MARA's Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 June 2026 (filed 6 August 2026); MicroStrategy's Forms 8-K of March 2022 and March 2023; press reports for Metaplanet, whose lender is not named. These are completed transactions by named companies, not terms offered to anyone else; terms are set only by the lender. | ||||
Two readings are worth taking from that table. The first is the cushion. MicroStrategy's subsidiary borrowed US$205.0 million against bitcoin worth about US$820.0 million, an opening LTV of about 25%, half the 50% retail lenders publish as a starting point. MARA's two facilities carry commitments of US$450.0 million and US$300.0 million, of which US$600.0 million is new money, against initial collateral of 18,750 bitcoin with a fair value of about US$1.2 billion. The filing states no drawn balance and no loan-to-value ratio, so no ratio is calculated here.
The second is that MicroStrategy's loan ended without drama: about US$161.0 million was prepaid on 24 March 2023 in full discharge, the bank released its security interest, and about 34,619 bitcoins had sat in the collateral account. A facility that is repaid is the normal outcome, and the one the trade press never covers.
Covenants and margin mechanics at scale
The mechanics rhyme with a retail loan and differ in three ways: the trigger is a covenant, the cure is a contractual obligation, and missing it is an event of default rather than an automatic sale.
MARA's filing puts the sequence plainly: “If the value of posted collateral falls below the specified margin call limit, the Company must promptly post additional collateral ... Failure to maintain sufficient collateral constitutes an event of default entitling [the lender] to exercise its remedies, including the right to liquidate pledged bitcoin.” MicroStrategy's 8-K shows the other half, a stated cure level: above 50% LTV the borrower had to add bitcoin or prepay to 25% or less, or to 35% at the cost of a 25 basis point rate increase.
Worked example
A covenant with a cure target bites early. Take a US$20,000,000 facility secured on US$80,000,000 of bitcoin: an opening LTV of 25%, a 50% cap and a cure to 25%, the MicroStrategy shape. The cap breaks when the collateral falls to US$40,000,000, a 50% price fall. Curing to 25% then means posting about US$40,000,000 more bitcoin, or prepaying US$10,000,000. The cure, not the cap, is the number the treasury must fund.
Three settings decide how often that arithmetic is run: the price source, the testing frequency and whether accrued interest sits inside the balance. Retail lenders name a specific index or feed; a corporate agreement should name its equivalent. How a call is issued and cured is covered in bitcoin loan margin calls.
Who writes institutional facilities
The lenders are not the consumer brands, and the collateral arrangements differ more than the pricing.
| Firm | What it publishes for corporate borrowers | Collateral handling published | Scale or minimum published |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coinbase Credit, Inc. | Balance-sheet lender to companies: named in MARA's filing under a master lending agreement of 29 January 2026 | Pledged bitcoin under the loan documents | US$450.0 million commitment in that facility |
| Two Prime Lending Limited | Over-collateralized bitcoin-backed loans for institutional borrowers: corporate treasuries, public bitcoin miners, family offices, RIAs and institutional allocators | Conservative LTV ratios and qualified custodians, in its own words; no figures published | None published; US$300.0 million in the MARA facility |
| Unchained | Commercial loans only, bitcoin collateral only, all on 12-payment terms | Its commercial loans page states that Unchained and Fortis Bank each hold one key, and that collateral cannot be moved or rehypothecated by Unchained, Fortis Bank or the company acting alone; it publishes no quorum. Its help pages separately describe loan collateral in a 2-of-3 quorum with the borrower, Unchained and a key agent, in a segregated sub-trust | US$150,000 minimum; financing of US$5 million or more routed to an institutional lending desk |
| Galaxy | Wholesale lending to qualifying institutions and corporations, including miner financing and collar loans described as non-recourse with no margin calls | Not published for miner facilities | None published |
| Anchorage Digital | Not a lender here: collateral management on its Atlas network for institutional lenders, monitoring thresholds and running rules-based actions | Custody plus triparty arrangements | States support for up to US$4 billion of assets under custody across Atlas collateral management and triparty activity |
| Ledn | The funding side: states that S&P assigned BBB− to the senior notes of its US$188M bitcoin-backed ABS | On custodied loans, re-posting limited to a US dollar funding partner or a Ledn-sponsored vehicle; not lent out | Published for its retail product, not a corporate program |
| Each firm's own pages and MARA's filing, accessed September 2026. Descriptions are the firms' own and are not legal conclusions or a ranking; terms are set only by the lender. | |||
Anchorage's entry is the one to notice. Collateral management has become a product lenders buy, so monitoring may sit with a third party that watches thresholds and executes rules-based actions. Ask who that party is before the first test date.
What a lender asks a company for
No lender whose pages we read publishes its corporate credit checklist, so the file is negotiated. The public record shows its shape, and a company that can answer these before an introduction moves faster.
- The entity and who controls it. Where a lender is a covered financial institution, FinCEN's rule requires it to identify and verify the beneficial owners of a legal entity customer: anyone owning 25% or more of the equity interests, plus one individual with significant responsibility to control or direct it.
- Authority to pledge. Who may commit treasury assets, under what board resolution or policy, and whether existing debt documents permit pledging at all.
- Where the coins are, and who can sign. Custody today, custody under the facility, and the signing arrangement. In Unchained's commercial structure the company holds a key, which is a governance question as much as a security one.
- Financial information. What the company can hand over, and for a listed borrower what is already filed.
- The margin regime. Price source, testing frequency, call level, cure level, cure window, and whether accrued interest counts in the balance.
- What happens on default. Which remedies the lender may exercise, in what order, and whether the facility cross-defaults.
How pledged bitcoin is measured, presented and disclosed is a question for the company's auditor and counsel. The filings cited here show what that disclosure has looked like: a quarterly report describing the pledge and its fair value, and an 8-K on signing followed by another on prepayment.
Risk
Risks a board should weigh
- Margin calls and forced liquidation. The covenant is tested against a price that moves around the clock, and the cure is a cash or collateral obligation that arrives on the lender's timetable. MARA's filing states that a failure to maintain sufficient collateral is an event of default entitling the lender to liquidate the pledged bitcoin.
- Counterparty and custody risk. The question is what the documents let the lender do with the coins, and whether they are segregated or bankruptcy-remote in substance rather than in marketing. The Celsius court held on 9 November 2023 that collateral posted by objecting retail borrowers was property of the estate. BlockFi and Genesis, an institutional lender, also filed in 2022 and 2023.
- Concentration and cross-default. A facility secured on most of the treasury ties the company's liquidity to one price. Check what else a default triggers.
- Tax and accounting on a liquidation. A forced sale is a disposal at a price the company did not choose, with a tax and accounting consequence in the same period. Take advice before signing, not after a call.
See also bitcoin loan rehypothecation and custody and are crypto loans taxable.
General information, not advice. This page describes bitcoin treasury financing from public filings and firms' own published pages, as read in September 2026. It is not an offer to lend or to arrange credit on particular terms, and it is not investment, legal, accounting or tax advice. Firms are named only to describe what they publish or what a filing records; naming one is not a recommendation and implies no relationship with Crypto Loans HQ. Terms are set only by the lender. How we are paid.
A treasury buying or selling size alongside a facility will also want large bitcoin purchases and sell bitcoin OTC, which cover execution rather than credit. The individual-scale product is on bitcoin-backed loans, ether collateral on borrow against Ethereum, and the stages of an introduction on how it works.
Primary sources
- MARA Holdings: Form 10-Q for the quarter ended 30 June 2026 (filed 6 August 2026)
- MicroStrategy: Form 8-K on the Silvergate term loan (March 2022) and Form 8-K on its prepayment (March 2023)
- Unchained: loans, loan collateral and the margin call process (accessed September 2026)
- Two Prime: lending and Galaxy: lending (accessed September 2026)
- Anchorage Digital: collateral management on Atlas (19 March 2026)
- Ledn: bitcoin-backed loans (accessed September 2026)
- 31 CFR 1010.230: beneficial ownership requirements for legal entity customers
- Reported, not filed: Metaplanet's credit facility draw (25 November 2025)
- In re Celsius Network LLC: corrected memorandum opinion (9 November 2023)
Bitcoin treasury financing: frequently asked questions
Can a company borrow against bitcoin it holds in treasury?
Public filings show that it happens at scale. MARA Holdings disclosed two bitcoin-backed term loans entered on 4 August 2026, from Coinbase Credit and Two Prime Lending, with 18,750 bitcoin pledged as initial collateral. Unchained publishes commercial bitcoin-backed loans with a US$150,000 minimum. Whether a given company qualifies depends on the lender, which sets its own criteria and terms.
What loan-to-value do corporate bitcoin loans use?
The one covenant published in full is the 2022 MicroStrategy facility: the loan-to-value had to stay at or below 50%, and above that the borrower had to add bitcoin or prepay until it was 25% or less. MARA's 2026 filing states no ratio and no drawn balance: it discloses commitments of US$450.0 million and US$300.0 million, of which US$600.0 million is new money, against 18,750 bitcoin with a fair value of about US$1.2 billion.
What happens on a margin call at corporate scale?
It runs through the credit agreement rather than an app alert. MARA's filing says that if the value of posted collateral falls below the specified margin call limit the company must promptly post additional collateral, and that failing to maintain sufficient collateral is an event of default entitling the lender to exercise remedies, including the right to liquidate pledged bitcoin.
Is miner equipment financing the same as a bitcoin-backed loan?
No. A bitcoin-backed facility is secured on coins whose value is marked continuously, so the collateral can trigger a call. Galaxy describes its miner financing as typically secured by miner treasuries as well as site and infrastructure assets, which is a different security package. No lender we read publishes equipment-only terms, so treat any figure you are quoted as specific to that deal.
Corporate and miner enquiries
Financing a bitcoin treasury rather than selling it?
Tell us the entity, how much bitcoin it holds, where the coins are custodied and what the facility is for. We check the enquiry against the criteria institutional lenders publish and, where one fits, arrange an introduction. The lender sets the covenants and the terms.