> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.libre.org/libre-docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.libre.org/libre-docs/core-features/overview-1.md).

# Lending

Deposit USDT into the lending pool, earn interest from borrowers, and redeem your share whenever the pool has liquidity.

You deposit USDT. Borrowers take it out against Bitcoin collateral and pay interest on it. You earn that interest.

Your money is never used for anything else — no trading, no derivatives, no lending it on somewhere else. It sits in the pool until a borrower draws it, and every borrower has more Bitcoin locked up than the USDT they took.

[Lend USDT →](https://defi.libre.org/lend)

## How it works

### 1. Deposit USDT

Deposit into the pool at [defi.libre.org/lend](https://defi.libre.org/lend). If you don't have USDT on Libre yet, see [how to bring it over](/libre-docs/guides/how-to-peg-in.md).

### 2. You receive TPF tokens

TPF is your share of the pool. It isn't a payout — it's a claim on a growing pot.

TPF doesn't pay interest into your wallet. Instead each token becomes worth more USDT as borrowers pay interest in. Deposit when a token is worth 1.00 USDT, redeem when it's worth 1.06, and that 6% is your return. The number of tokens you hold never changes.

### 3. The rate moves with demand

There is no fixed rate. What borrowers pay depends on how much of the pool is already lent out — its **utilization**:

| Pool lent out | Borrowers pay |
| ------------- | ------------- |
| 0%            | 3% APR        |
| 80%           | 9% APR        |
| 100%          | 20% APR       |

Between those points the rate moves smoothly. Past 80% it climbs steeply, which is deliberate: it pulls in new deposits and pushes borrowers to repay, so the pool doesn't run dry.

**What you earn is not the same as what borrowers pay.** Only the lent-out portion earns anything; idle USDT earns nothing. Your yield is the borrower rate multiplied by utilization.

> If borrowers are paying 9% and 80% of the pool is lent out, lenders earn about 7.2%.

This is why a busy pool pays better than a quiet one, and why the headline borrower rate always looks higher than the lender yield.

> The pool is live and funded. When most of it is sitting idle, borrowers pay near the 3% floor and lender yield is correspondingly low — yield here is a function of how busy the pool is, so early lenders into a quiet pool should expect little until borrowing picks up. [Live pool stats](https://defi.libre.org/protocol).

### 4. Redeem when you want

Redeem TPF for USDT plus accrued interest at any time.

The one limit is real money: if most of the pool is out on loan, there may not be enough idle USDT to pay you immediately. Your redemption then **joins a queue** and fills automatically as borrowers repay. You keep earning while you wait.

## What backs your USDT

Every borrower posts Bitcoin worth substantially more than they borrow — a loan can only start at 60% loan-to-value — and that Bitcoin sits in its own vault address, not a shared wallet.

If a borrower's collateral falls far enough in value, the loan is closed out and the Bitcoin sold to repay the pool. There's a 72-hour window for the borrower to fix it first, and the whole process runs on the [on-chain price oracle](/libre-docs/understanding-the-platform/mechanics/price-oracle.md) rather than an exchange feed.

→ [How liquidation works](/libre-docs/understanding-the-platform/mechanics/liquidation.md) · [Custody & security](/libre-docs/core-features/overview-3.md)

## Share value, exactly

The value of one TPF is the pool's total assets divided by the TPF in circulation:

```
TPF value = (available + outstanding − buyback_accrued) / TPF supply
```

Where `available` is idle USDT, `outstanding` is USDT out on loan including accrued interest. Live figures are in the `poolstats` table of the `loan` contract.

→ [TPF and tokenomics in detail](/libre-docs/understanding-the-platform/mechanics/tokenomics.md)

## The older fixed-term pools

Libre previously ran fixed-rate, fixed-term pools issuing TP, TPA, TPB, TPC, TPD and TPE tokens. Those pools are **closed to new deposits** and are withdrawal-only.

If you hold any of those tokens, nothing is lost and nothing is urgent — redeem them at [defi.libre.org/lend](https://defi.libre.org/lend) whenever you like, subject to the same liquidity rules.

## Questions

**Can I lose money?**\
Only if a borrower's collateral fell so fast that selling it didn't cover their loan. Loans start at 60% LTV and are closed out at 80%, so there is a wide margin, but it is a market — a violent enough move in Bitcoin is a real risk, not a theoretical one.

**What if nobody borrows?**\
You earn nothing on the idle portion. The rate curve is designed to make that self-correcting: an empty pool is cheap to borrow from, which attracts borrowers.

**Can I get my money out early?**\
Yes — there's no lock-up. The only constraint is available liquidity, and a queued redemption fills as loans are repaid.

**Is my USDT lent out anywhere else?**\
No. It only ever goes to borrowers on Libre, against Bitcoin collateral held on-chain.