Borrowing & Collateral
Borrowing on Peridot is overcollateralized: you can only borrow against value you've already deposited, and always less than that value. That single constraint is what lets the protocol lend without credit checks, paperwork, or counterparty trust.
Why borrow against your own money?#
- Liquidity without selling — unlock cash from XLM or other holdings while keeping the upside (and the yield) of the deposit.
- No fixed schedule — repay any amount, any time. Interest accrues only for the time you actually owe.
- Your deposit keeps earning — collateral continues to accrue supply interest while it backs your loan, partially offsetting the borrow rate.
The borrow limit#
Each asset's collateral factor caps how much of its value you can borrow against (XLM 70%, USDC/EURC 90% — see Networks & assets). Your limit sums over everything you've enabled as collateral:
borrowLimit = Σ (deposit value × collateral factor) available = borrowLimit − already borrowed
Example: deposit $1,000 of USDC (90%) and $1,000 of XLM (70%) and your total limit is $1,600. The app enforces this before every borrow — and Easy mode additionally suggests staying well below the maximum.
The life of a loan#
- Deposit an asset and enable it as collateral.
- Borrow up to your available limit in any listed asset.
- Interest accrues on the debt at the market's live borrow rate, block by block.
- Repay partially or fully whenever you like; repayment instantly restores your limit.
- Withdraw collateral any time, as long as the remaining limit still covers your debt.
The one rule that matters
Keep your debt below your borrow limit at all times. If prices move against you and the debt exceeds the limit, the position becomes eligible for liquidation. The next page covers exactly how that works — and how to keep a safe distance from it.