Small Loans

Small Loans is SaabFi's first product: a way to borrow USDC against Bitcoin collateral without selling the Bitcoin. You lock cbBTC (Coinbase Wrapped BTC) on Base, receive a USDC loan between 1 and 1,000 USDC, and repay it over a fixed 30-day term. When the principal is repaid, your collateral is yours to claim back.

At a glance

How a loan works

If the term ends with principal still outstanding, the loan defaults instead. See If a loan is not repaid.

Pricing and collateral

You can borrow up to 80% of your collateral's value. Your required cbBTC is derived from the loan amount, that 80% loan-to-value limit, and the current cbBTC price, rounded up.

To avoid pricing a loan off a single manipulated quote, the smart contracts price collateral conservatively at origination: they use the lower of a one-hour time-weighted average price (TWAP) and a freshness-checked Chainlink spot price.

The upfront fee

Small Loans does not accrue interest. Instead, it charges a single commitment fee at origination, paid once upfront and never added to the repayment balance.

The fee is dynamic and reflects how much of the lending pool is already in use:

• It currently ranges from 4% to 20% of the loan amount.
• When the pool is lightly used, the fee sits near the low end. As more of the pool is lent out, the quoted fee rises.
• The fee can drift higher over sustained heavy usage, and a temporary surcharge is added after defaults to price in recent losses.

Because the fee is quoted live, you set the maximum fee you are willing to pay when you open the loan. This cap is known as slippage protection: if the live quote comes back higher, the transaction reverts.

Repaying

Repayment is flexible:

• Partial payments are allowed any time before the deadline. The loan stays open while any principal remains.
• Minimum payment: the smallest accepted repayment is one USDC base unit (0.000001 USDC). The 1 USDC minimum applies only to opening a loan, not to repaying one.
• No overpayment. You cannot pay more than the outstanding balance; a payment that exactly clears the balance settles the loan in full.
• No late repayment. Once the 30-day deadline passes with a balance still owed, the repayment path closes and the loan becomes eligible for default.

If a loan is not repaid

A loan that reaches its 30-day deadline with principal still outstanding can be defaulted. When that happens:

• The locked cbBTC collateral is forfeited to the company treasury.
• The defaulted loan is final. It cannot return to an active or repayable state.
• There is no further claim on the borrower. The forfeited collateral is the full extent of the consequence; there is no mechanism to pursue any remaining shortfall against you.

Where the USDC comes from

Loans are funded from a shared USDC lending pool. The pool is seeded and maintained by the company, not by open public deposits. There are no public lender shares or open withdrawal claims in this product. A new loan can only be opened when the pool holds enough available USDC to fund it.

Safety and emergency controls

The product includes several protections:

• No one can take your collateral. No admin, owner, or company role can move, withdraw, or seize the cbBTC you lock. The vault has no admin withdrawal and no rescue function. Your collateral can leave in only two ways: it returns to you when you repay in full, or it is forfeited to the company treasury on default. Only the keeper can trigger that default, and only once your 30-day term has passed with the loan still unpaid.
• No liquidations. The defining safety property: collateral is never sold mid-loan to cover a price move.
• Conservative pricing. Origination uses the lower of the one-hour TWAP and a freshness-checked spot price, so loans cannot be opened against a manipulated spike.
• Depeg protection. New loans are blocked while USDC trades outside roughly $0.98–$1.02, or while cbBTC diverges meaningfully from BTC. Normal service resumes only after prices are healthy again for a stability window.
• Pause controls. Guardians can pause new loan originations, and separately pause collateral claims, in an emergency.

Under the hood

The product is a set of smart contracts on Base. The canonical state of every loan, balance, and price lives on-chain; dashboards and keepers are convenience layers on top.