How lending works

You deposit USDC into the MLKY Pool. The pool lends it to borrowers against their graded cards, and the interest they pay is shared among the pool's lenders.

Depositing

For now, deposits into the MLKY Pool are by invitation. Join the waitlist on the Lend page and you'll be able to deposit once you're invited.

You deposit from your own wallet and the USDC goes straight into the pool. In return you get a share of the pool, and the Lend page shows what that share is worth.

How you earn

Interest on the pool's loans counts toward your share day by day as it builds up, and borrowers pay it when they repay or extend. You only earn for the time you're actually in the pool, and cash that isn't lent out earns nothing.

Today MLKY keeps 20% of the interest borrowers pay. The rest goes to the pool's lenders.

There's no fixed rate. What you earn depends on how much of the pool is lent out, on what terms, and how many loans default.

What the pool lends against

The pool only lends against cards we accept, and only up to a share of each card's value. That leaves room for a card to lose some value before the loan against it is at risk. Every loan is for a short, fixed term.

When a loan defaults

A defaulted loan comes out of your share's value as soon as it defaults. Anything recovered later, whether the borrower repays, the card sells at auction or it's sold afterwards, goes to the lenders who were in the pool on that day, in proportion to their shares. You claim it under Recovery on the Lend page, even if you've withdrawn since.

A sale at auction always repays the loan in full, interest included. Losses come from cards nobody buys at that price, and from the other risks described in Risks for lenders.

Funding a borrower's request

You can also fund a borrower's own request on the Listings page. You pick the request, and today MLKY keeps 20% of the interest when it's repaid.

If the borrower doesn't repay in time, you can take the card. There's no auction, so you end up holding the tokenized card, and it could be worth more or less than you lent. Asking lenders directly covers the borrower's side.

When you want your money back, Withdrawing explains how it works.