Your Loan-to-Value (LTV) ratio is your principal (including any accrued unpaid interest) divided by the current value of your bitcoin collateral, expressed as a percentage.
The maximum initial LTV is 50%. Your loan or draw amount can be up to 50% of the cash value of your collateral. It applies to both fixed-term loans and the line of credit.
Bitcoin's price fluctuates, and so does the value of your collateral. A price drop raises your LTV. A price increase lowers it.
For fixed-term Payment at Maturity loans, LTV increases each month as unpaid interest accrues. Monthly Payment loans keep LTV unaffected by interest since you pay it monthly.
For the line of credit, LTV is based on your drawn principal, not on your total credit line. Drawing more increases LTV, and repaying principal decreases it.
Monitor your LTV on the Cash tab via your LTV Tracker. You can lower your LTV at any time by paying down principal or adding collateral.
| LTV range | Status | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Below 40% | Healthy | You can retrieve collateral |
| 40%–65% | Healthy | No action needed |
| 65% | Warning | Consider adding collateral or repaying principal |
| 70% | Margin call | 72 hours to lower LTV to 65% or below |
| 85% | Liquidation | Immediate partial liquidation to return LTV to 65% |
If your LTV drops to 40% or below and your loan or line of credit is more than 60 days old, you can retrieve collateral. Your post-retrieval LTV must stay below 50%.
For the line of credit, if the bitcoin price rises or you add collateral and your LTV drops, you may also be able to increase your credit line.
A margin call triggers if your LTV reaches 70%, even temporarily. You have 72 hours to bring your LTV back to 65% or below. You'll be notified by email and push notification (if enabled).
To resolve a margin call:
If the bitcoin price recovers enough during the 72-hour window to bring your LTV back to 65% on its own, your margin call is automatically canceled.
If you don't resolve your margin call on time, Strike sells only the minimum amount of collateral needed to bring your LTV back to 65%. At 70% LTV, that means roughly 14% of your collateral would be sold. After repaying the outstanding principal and interest, you'd get back the remaining 86%, assuming no further liquidations occurred.
If your LTV reaches 85% at any time, an automatic partial collateral liquidation immediately triggers.
Liquidation at 85% is not a full liquidation. Strike sells only enough collateral to bring your LTV back to 65%. At 85% LTV, that works out to roughly 57% of your collateral. You keep the rest as long as you face no further liquidations.
You deposit 0.2 BTC as collateral when bitcoin is at $100,000 and borrow $10,000 (50% LTV). Bitcoin drops to $58,824, pushing your LTV to 85%.
Strike sells approximately 0.114 BTC ($6,706) and applies the proceeds to your principal. Your remaining collateral is about 0.086 BTC ($5,059) against a reduced principal of roughly $3,294, bringing your LTV back to 65%.
This is why monitoring your LTV and proactively adding collateral matters. The earlier you act, the less collateral is at risk.
Collateral liquidations can also occur if you fail to make required payments:
Any liquidation of bitcoin collateral, including using collateral as a payment source, is treated as a bitcoin sale on your behalf and incurs a taxable event.