Which Protocols Does Borrow Support?

Which Protocols Does Borrow Support?

Borrow by Sats Terminal aggregates lending offers from multiple DeFi protocols and CeFi partners. Currently, the platform supports:

• Aave v3 -- the largest decentralized lending protocol
• Morpho Blue -- a next-generation protocol with optimized rate mechanics
• CeFi lending partners -- centralized lenders offering additional options

This guide provides a deep dive into each supported protocol: how it works, what makes it unique, where it is deployed, and how Borrow integrates it into the aggregation engine.

Aave v3

What Is Aave?

Aave is one of the foundational lending protocols in decentralized finance. Originally launched in 2020, it has grown into the largest DeFi lending platform by total value locked (TVL), consistently holding billions of dollars in deposited assets.

Aave v3 is the latest major version, released in 2023 with significant improvements over v2, including cross-chain portals, high-efficiency mode (e-Mode), and improved risk management.

How Aave v3 Works

Aave uses a pooled lending model:

1. Suppliers deposit assets (like USDC or USDT) into a shared lending pool and earn interest.
2. Borrowers deposit collateral (like wrapped Bitcoin) and borrow from the pool, paying interest.
3. Interest rates are determined by a utilization curve -- as the pool gets more utilized (more borrowed vs. supplied), rates increase to incentivize new supply.

This model provides deep liquidity because many suppliers contribute to the same pool. For borrowers, this means loans are usually available instantly without needing to find a specific counterparty.

Aave v3 on Borrow

When you see an Aave v3 offer on Borrow, the key metrics include:

• Variable APR -- Aave v3 rates fluctuate based on pool utilization.
• LTV (Loan-to-Value) -- the maximum percentage of your collateral value you can borrow. For example, an 80% LTV means you can borrow up to $80,000 in stablecoins against $100,000 of Bitcoin collateral.
• Liquidation threshold -- the collateral ratio at which your position gets liquidated.
• Available liquidity -- how much stablecoin is available to borrow from the pool.

Borrow fetches these values directly from Aave's smart contracts, so you always see the current on-chain reality.

Where Aave v3 Is Deployed

Aave v3 is available on:

• Ethereum mainnet
• Arbitrum
• Optimism
• Polygon
• BASE
• BSC (BNB Chain)

Each deployment is an independent instance with its own liquidity pools, which is why rates can differ between chains. Borrow queries all of them and surfaces the best rate regardless of which chain it is on.

Morpho Blue

What Is Morpho Blue?

Morpho Blue is a next-generation DeFi protocol built with a minimalist, modular design philosophy. Launched by the Morpho team (who previously built Morpho Optimizer on top of Aave and Compound), Morpho Blue represents a ground-up rethink of how lending markets should work.

How Morpho Blue Works

Unlike Aave's shared pools, Morpho Blue uses isolated markets:

1. Each market is defined by a specific collateral-debt pair (e.g., wBTC collateral / USDC debt) with specific risk parameters.
2. Markets are created permissionlessly -- anyone can create a market with any parameters.
3. Curators bundle markets into vaults that depositors can supply to, effectively managing risk for passive lenders.
4. Rates are set by the specific supply/demand dynamics of each isolated market, not a broad pool.

Why Morpho Blue Often Offers Better Rates

The isolated market design can lead to more efficient pricing:

• No cross-subsidization. In a pooled model, low-risk borrowers sometimes subsidize high-risk borrowers because they share the same pool. Morpho Blue's isolated markets mean each risk profile gets its own rate.
• Competition among curators. Multiple curators compete to offer the best risk-adjusted returns, which drives rates down for borrowers.
• Lean smart contract design. Morpho Blue's contract is remarkably small (around 650 lines of Solidity), which reduces gas costs and attack surface.

Morpho Blue on Borrow

When you see a Morpho Blue offer on Borrow, you will notice:

• Market-specific rates -- each offer comes from a specific isolated market.
• Defined oracle -- each market uses a specific price oracle, which is transparently displayed.
• LLTV (Liquidation LTV) -- the liquidation threshold for that specific market.

Borrow abstracts away the complexity of finding and evaluating individual Morpho Blue markets. You see the result -- the rate, the terms, and the risk parameters -- without needing to navigate Morpho's interface or understand its curator system.

CeFi Lending Partners

What Is CeFi Lending?

CeFi (centralized finance) lending involves borrowing from a company rather than a smart contract. CeFi lenders operate more like traditional financial institutions: you deposit collateral with the lender, and they issue you a loan.

CeFi on Borrow

Borrow includes select CeFi lending partners alongside its DeFi offerings. These CeFi options may offer:

• Fixed interest rates -- unlike DeFi's variable rates, some CeFi offers lock in a rate for the loan duration.
• Different collateral ratios -- CeFi lenders may accept different LTV ratios than DeFi protocols.
• Alternative terms -- loan durations, minimum amounts, and other terms may differ.

Including CeFi options alongside DeFi gives you the most comprehensive view of the lending market. You can make a truly informed decision about whether a decentralized or centralized option better fits your needs.

DeFi vs. CeFi Trade-offs

Borrow presents both options transparently so you can weigh these trade-offs for yourself.

Protocol Comparison at a Glance

How Borrow Selects and Integrates Protocols

Not every lending protocol makes it onto Borrow. The integration criteria include:

Security Requirements

• Professional audits -- the protocol must have been audited by reputable security firms.
• Track record -- a history of safe operation with significant TVL.
• Open-source code -- Borrow only integrates protocols whose smart contracts can be publicly verified.
• Bug bounty programs -- active bug bounties signal a commitment to ongoing security.

Technical Requirements

• Reliable on-chain data -- Borrow needs to be able to read accurate rate and liquidity data from the protocol's contracts.
• Composable smart contracts -- the protocol must allow external smart contracts to interact with it programmatically.
• Supported collateral types -- the protocol must accept at least one form of Bitcoin as collateral.

Rate Competitiveness

• The protocol should offer rates that are competitive enough to appear in users' top options at least some of the time. A protocol with consistently uncompetitive rates would not add value to the aggregation.

What Is Coming Next

Sats Terminal is actively expanding Borrow's protocol coverage. The roadmap includes:

• Additional DeFi protocols -- evaluating integration with other lending platforms that meet security and reliability standards.
• More CeFi partners -- onboarding additional centralized lenders to broaden the comparison set.
• Specialized markets -- as DeFi evolves, new types of lending markets (fixed-rate protocols, credit-based lending) may be added.

The goal is to make Borrow the single destination where you can compare every available Bitcoin-backed lending offer, regardless of whether it comes from a DeFi protocol, a CeFi lender, or a hybrid model.

Explore Further

Want to understand how Borrow turns these protocol integrations into a seamless comparison experience? Read how Borrow aggregates lending offers.

Interested in which blockchains these protocols are available on? Check out what blockchains Borrow supports.

Ready to compare rates across all supported protocols? Create your account and start browsing offers today.