Bitcoin financial services platform Strike has launched a “volatility-proof” Bitcoin-backed loan that eliminates margin calls and forced liquidations amid the depths of a bear market, but only for those who can pay on time and handle a 14% interest rate.
In an announcement on Tuesday, Strike CEO Jack Mallers said the offering came in response to broad customer feedback on Strike’s first Bitcoin loan product, which launched in May 2025 and triggered many liquidations during a timeframe in which Bitcoin (BTC) dropped 54% from peak to trough.
“No margin calls. No price liquidations. No matter how far bitcoin falls, your bitcoin doesn’t move,” Strike CEO Jack Mallers said of the new Bitcoin loan product. The trade-off is an expensive interest rate, a shorter six-month loan term, and an obligation to pay on time to avoid liquidation, Mallers said.
Strike’s Jack Mallers is presenting the new Bitcoin-backed loan product. Source: Jack Mallers
The Bitcoin industry has spent the better part of a decade racing to build financial products that expand Bitcoin’s use case beyond a savings technology. A report in June from crypto lending platform Ledn, however, found that while 88% of surveyed crypto investors said they would consider a crypto-backed loan, only 14% use them.
Ledn said confidence in crypto-lending products and market volatility are among the main reasons for this 6-to-1 “crypto collateral gap” that has slowed adoption.
Volatility has been one of the biggest obstacles behind that push, with Bitcoin dropping 30% or more in 10 of the past 12 years, while also experiencing a 50% or more drawdown four times since 2014, Mallers noted.
Other crypto market participants offering Bitcoin-backed loans are Binance, Coinbase, Nexo and Xapo Bank.
Strike charges double-digit interest
The maximum initial loan-to-value ratio for the volatility-proof loans is 45%, meaning that a customer who puts up $100,000 in Bitcoin as collateral can borrow up to $45,000, while the annual percentage rate (APR) is also 2.95 percentage points higher than Strike’s standard loan product.
“The secret sauce is that we’re taking the…..
