Salt Lending
APR8.95-14.45%(Fixed)
Risk score71High
Founded in 2016, SALT (Secured Automated Lending Technology) pioneered crypto-backed loans, letting users borrow cash using crypto, stablecoins, or tokenized gold as collateral without credit checks. It serves individuals, businesses, and private clients, also offering custody and risk-monitoring services.
Interest rate
Fixed (e.g. 7.95-13.45%)
Currency support
USD, USDC, USDT
Fees
1%
Collateral
BTC, ETH, USDC, USDT, SALT
LTV
Up to 70%
Loan type
Consumer
Liquidation LTV
90%
Margin call
83%
KYC
Yes
Total loan issued
N/A
Launch year
2016
Loan duration
12m
Support
Email, Chat, Call
Loan value
$5,000 - N/A
Total risk score71High
Highlights
High risk driven by pooled hot-wallet custody, opaque pricing, and missing proof-of-reserves. A full stack audit, public price-feed disclosure, and a clear commitment to park most collateral with the regulated custodian while keeping the hot-wallet float small would halve its exposure.
Penalties
Rehypothecation = 7
+10 pts
Custody = 7
+5 pts
Oracle = 10
+5 pts
Security & Governance = 4
+3 pts

Collateral
0/10
What are you pledging? Native BTC is safest; wrappers, bridges, or paper IOUs add redemption risk.
Native BTC (on-chain UTXO).

Rehypothecation
7/10
Will your BTC be re-used? More hidden leverage → bigger blow-up chance.
Salt's terms explicitly state the lender may “repledge, sell or otherwise transfer or use Stored Coins” under the applicable loan agreement.

Custody
7/10
Who can move the coins? Scores quorum design, recovery paths, and (for CeFi) bankruptcy-remote segregation.
Salt touts BitGo Trust cold storage but still pushes a “distributed, custody-agnostic” model using Fireblocks MPC, never disclosing how much BTC sits with each custodian. Fireblocks is wallet-tech, not a qualified trust; coins in its omnibus MPC vaults remain under Salt’s ultimate control. The Terms of Use let Salt’s in-house custodian name sub-custodians and provide no wallet-level proofs or audits. Lacking evidence that all collateral is ring-fenced in a bankruptcy-remote trust, the model conservatively assigns Custody = 7.

Security & Governance
4/10
How battle-tested are code and ops? Counts audits, bug-bounty, certs, and hardware key isolation.
Custodians BitGo & Fireblocks both carry SOC 2 Type 2, yet Salt discloses no independent audit of its own application layer, only recurring pen-tests.

Platform
0/10
Is the chain or bridge robust? Rates consensus security and smart-contract attack surface.
Native Bitcoin script.

Oracle
10/10
How is price fetched and signed? Independence, on-chain proofs, refresh speed, circuit breakers.
SALT uses a volume-weighted algorithm for BTC/ETH–USD rates but doesn’t disclose source exchanges.

Liquidation Buffer
2/10
How much room and time before liquidation? Combines LTV gap, grace window, and flash-crash guards.
Margin calls at 75%, 83.33%, and 88%; liquidation at 90.91% LTV. Max LTV is 70%, with a 48-hour grace window before forced liquidation.

Rate & Term
2/10
Can interest spike mid-loan? Looks at fixed vs variable APR and funding duration match.
Fixed-term 12-month loans; APR 8.95-14.45 % with 0-1 % origination; no variable-rate surprises.

Transparency
10/10
Can outsiders verify code & solvency? Rewards open-source + live PoR; punishes black boxes.
Salt talks about PoR and transparency but publishes no on‑chain addresses, no live or scheduled PoR, and no liability data. Custody and software remain proprietary. With zero publicly verifiable proof and a Terms-of-Use clause that disclaims any accuracy, Salt remains a total black box.

Loan Currency
4/10
What asset do you borrow? Native-BTC best; fiat stables graded on reserves, audits, censorship risk.
US dollars or stablecoin (USDC / USDT).

Privacy
7/10
How exposed is your identity? Scores KYC depth, data storage, and breach history.
Full KYC; Large Data Trove.

History
7/10
Have they proven themselves? Measures years live, audit/OSS footprint, and incident track record.
Salt was fined by the SEC in 2020 for an unregistered ICO and by California’s DFPI in 2024 for misleading lending practices. No fund losses, but repeated violations signal high compliance risk.

Jurisdiction
2/10
Which legal system backs you? Rates clarity of licensing, creditor rights, and enforcement.
U.S. Licensed Lender.