What Is Loan-to-value (LTV)?
LTV is the ratio of the loan's value to the value of collateral. In a typical financial market, credit scores determine the risk involved in a loan. The lower the credit score, the higher the risk for lenders. Instead of credit scores, the crypto lending process offers asset-backed loans.
Loan to value (LTV) determines the amount of cryptocurrency one would need as collateral before one could get a loan. The lender holds on to this collateral until the loan is fully paid back.
The main benefit of LTV in crypto lending is that it helps minimize the risk on the lender's part. The user also benefits from LTV in that they can access larger loans at lesser interest rates.
How to Calculate LTV?
Case 1: When borrowing a crypto-backed loan, you calculate the loan-to-value (LTV) as follows:
LTV = Loan Amount/ Market value of collateral
Your LTV would be 50% if you borrowed $5,000 and deposited $10,000 worth of bitcoin. However, if the value of bitcoin fell, your collateral's value would decrease, increasing your ratio. To get your loan back to its original LTV ratio, if your LTV rises too high, you might need to put up extra collateral.
Case 2: Once your loan is active, you can continue to monitor your LTV using the following formula:
LTV = Outstanding balance/ Market value of collateral