What is a crypto loan calculator?
A crypto loan calculator shows you the four numbers that decide whether a crypto-backed loan is safe: your loan-to-value (LTV), the liquidation price of your collateral, the total interest over the term, and the total repayment. You lock up crypto — usually Bitcoin or Ethereum — as collateral and borrow stablecoins or cash against it without selling. The catch is that your collateral keeps trading, so if its price falls far enough the lender sells it to protect the loan. This tool tells you exactly how far that is, against the live market price.
How to use this calculator
- Pick your collateral coin. The collateral price auto-fills with the live market price, so your LTV matches what you'd get right now.
- Enter how many coins you are posting as collateral.
- Enter the loan amount you want to borrow in dollars.
- Set the APR and term to see the interest cost.
- Set the liquidation LTV your lender uses (often 80–90%).
- Read your current LTV, liquidation price and total repayment — all update as you type.
How LTV and liquidation are calculated
This calculator uses the standard crypto-lending model:
The LTV is the single most important risk number: it is the share of your collateral that the loan represents. A low LTV means a big price cushion; a high LTV means a small one. The liquidation price is simply the collateral price at which your fixed loan grows to equal the liquidation-LTV share of a now-smaller collateral value. Because the loan amount is fixed, the only thing that moves your LTV after you borrow is the collateral price.
Worked example
You post 1 BTC at $60,000 as collateral and borrow $20,000 at 10% APR for 12 months, with an 83% liquidation LTV. Your collateral value is 1 × 60,000 = $60,000, so your LTV is 20,000 ÷ 60,000 × 100 = 33.33% — a comfortable starting point. Liquidation hits at 20,000 ÷ (1 × 0.83) = $24,096.39, meaning BTC would have to fall about 60% before your collateral is sold. Interest is 20,000 × 0.10 × 1 = $2,000, for a total repayment of $22,000. Those are the figures this page shows on load.
What an LTV number means
- Under 35% → conservative; large buffer, low liquidation risk.
- 35–50% → moderate; reasonable for most borrowers.
- 50–70% → aggressive; a sharp drop can put you near a margin call.
- Over 70% → high risk; a modest dip can trigger liquidation.
Most lenders set a margin-call threshold a few points below the hard liquidation LTV. If you cross it you are warned and given time to add collateral or repay before any collateral is sold — but in a fast crash that window can be short.
Common mistakes
- Borrowing near the maximum LTV. Starting at 70%+ leaves almost no room for normal volatility. Borrow well below the cap.
- Forgetting interest accrues on top. Your repayment is the loan plus interest, and on some platforms unpaid interest is added to the balance, nudging your LTV up over time.
- Ignoring the volatility of the collateral. A volatile alt-coin needs a far lower starting LTV than BTC or ETH to survive the same percentage swing.
- Assuming one liquidation price across platforms. Each lender uses its own liquidation LTV and fees, so the exact trigger price varies — set the field to match your provider.
Where to borrow
Crypto-backed loans are offered by major exchanges and dedicated lending platforms. Terms vary widely: maximum LTV, APR, liquidation LTV, supported collateral and whether interest compounds. Before you commit, confirm the liquidation LTV and the margin-call buffer, and prefer a venue with deep liquidity so your collateral isn't sold into a thin order book on a brief wick. Use the calculator above to compare the same loan under each platform's liquidation LTV, then size your borrow so a realistic drawdown still leaves you clear of the trigger.