Templar is the first Cypher Lending protocol. It enables users to borrow stablecoins using BTC, or any asset on any chain, without relying on centralized intermediary or triggering a taxable event. It uses a Multi-Party Computation (MPC) network, plus overcollateralization and smart contract liquidations, to stay secure and solvent.

Based on Cypherpunk principles, Cypher Lending enables permissionless borrowing, lending, and deployment of markets for any asset on any chain while:

- Respecting the user’s sovereignty

- Prioritizing privacy and UX

- Open Sourcing all code

- Remaining non-institutional: meaning no Trusted Third Parties or KYC

Templar enables native BTC lending without wrapping, bridging, or centralized intermediaries—unlike bankrupt centralized platforms like BlockFi or Celsius, which lacked transparency and lost users’ funds. The leading decentralized protocols like Aave, Morpho, or Compound rely on wrapped BTC (e.g., WBTC or cbBTC) held by custodians like BitGo or Coinbase. In contrast, Templar uses BTC directly on the Bitcoin network, deposited from your wallet. Since Templar does not rely on wrapping the BTC, there is no taxable event.

Native BTC Support

Deposit native BTC—no wrapping or bridging. It stays on Bitcoin, secured by a decentralized MPC network. Smart contracts handle borrowing and liquidation permissionlessly, avoiding liquidity fragmentation.

Cross-Chain Lending

Borrow stablecoins on Ethereum using BTC on Bitcoin. Markets are isolated (e.g., BTC → USDC) but coordinate seamlessly via NEAR Chain Signatures—a smart contract–controlled MPC network that signs cross-chain transactions without bridges or wrapped assets.

• User deposits native BTC to an MPC Controlled wallet

• A NEAR smart contract triggers the MPC network to verify the deposit

• Borrowing happens on another chain (e.g., USDC on Ethereum)

• No wrapping or bridging - assets stay on their native chain

No. Templar is an open to everyone protocol. There are no plans for mandatory KYC. Optional whitelisting may be supported in the future for custom market types.

• Start by opening up app.templarfi.org to access the Templar application front end. 

Templar supports native assets on multiple chains via MPC, Chain Signatures, and NEAR Intents. It avoids bridges and wrappers, letting users borrow/lend directly from BTC, ETH, SOL, XLM, ADA, DOGE, and other chains using a unified interface.

The new Passkey feature allows users to interact with Templar smart contracts while only having the ability to send and receive your preferred crypto asset.

You can now send a Bitcoin transaction and receive stablecoins on your preferred network—or even directly to an exchange—without needing a smart contract compatible wallet. Templar Protocol will handle all of the smart contract complexities and gas payments for you.

Smart contract compatible wallets (e.g. Metamask, Phantom, Meteor, etc) will always be available for users requiring more control.

Passkeys are the new way to use Templar Protocol in the most seamless way possible. You no longer need to create a NEAR wallet & fund it with NEAR coins to interact with Templar Smart contracts. All gas payments and contract interactions have been abstracted away, only requiring a fingerprint scan or 4 digit code to start borrowing or lending.

NOTE: Passkey functionality has only been tested for Chrome & Brave browsers.

Passkey is the preferred method of interacting with Templar for a couple types of users.

• If you don’t have a smart contract based wallet & don’t want to create one, this is your best option.

• If you’ve never created a crypto wallet you can still interact with Templar by depositing directly from an exchange and withdraw your stablecoins back to an exchange

• Passkey is the fastest way to test out Templar Protocol functionality for new users.

NOTE: Passkey functionality has only been tested for Chrome & Brave browsers.

The main costs to interact with Templar are the gas fees for sending a token (e.g., Bitcoin Layer 1 fees, which vary by network conditions), and the interest paid to borrow against your assets (based on market rates).

No. Templar explicitly avoids rehypothecation. Deposited assets are safely held via MPC custody and never reused for lending or yield farming elsewhere.

Not usually. Templar markets typically use variable rate IRMs on most markets.

Templar cannot freeze user funds. However, some stablecoins may be frozen by the issuer (e.g. Tether, Circle) if the issuer detects criminal activity.

Multi-Party Computation (MPC) is the technology that lets users send BTC directly into Templar without wrapping or bridging. Templar splits the Bitcoin private key among network parties, each performing a small computation that together forms a standard BTC transaction.

Templar uses NEAR’s MPC stack. It's an open-source, cryptographically sound solution based on OT-based threshold signatures (ECDSA) and FROST (EdDSA). 

More info can be found here:

NEAR MPC  

NEAR Threshold Signatures

The MPC network’s code runs in a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE), a specialized hardware module that prevents malicious or unauthorized code from running on the nodes. The TEE also ensures node operators’ key shares never leak and protects against long-range attacks. 

Templar Protocol and the NEAR MPC network do not have centralized custody on user funds. Templar smart contract delegates custody to the NEAR MPC network, which divides custody of users’ funds among the nodes at all times, ensuring no malicious activity occurs as long as one honest participant remains in the network. The use of MPC as a solution to the Trusted Third Party Problem was originally proposed by Nick Szabo in 2001.

NEAR Intents provide per-user BTC deposit addresses and verifies BTC transactions via a light client. It acts as the abstraction layer between Bitcoin and NEAR smart contracts, enabling native BTC use as collateral.

• Depositing BTC to Templar is as simple as it gets. Once the terms of the loan are agreed upon, the protocol provides the user with a QR code or deposit address for a standard Bitcoin Layer 1 transaction. After the transaction is confirmed (1-6 blocks, depending on transaction size), the stablecoins for the loan are released to the user.

BTC stays on the Bitcoin network. It’s held by a smart contract-controlled MPC setup, powered by NEAR’s Chain Signatures.The private key is split between MPC nodes, and no single party can access the funds. Only the smart contract - based on user actions (borrow, withdraw, liquidation) - can trigger a transaction.  Funds are never rehypothecated, they only move upon manual loan closure or liquidation.

More info:

↳ NEAR MPC Stack Overview:

↳ NEAR MPC Codebase:

↳ Threshold Signatures:

Each deposit address is unique and can be verified on any Bitcoin block explorer. You can check BTC addresses and balances on-chain using the public config files, which include:

- NEAR market contract

- oracle price feeds

- Vault settings such as liquidation thresholds and address configs

Funds are never re-used or re-hypothecated.

Templar currently accepts only Layer 1 BTC, but we plan to support major BTC LSTs in the future. We will assess engineering timelines and user demand to decide which coins to support first.

No. Each market in Templar is isolated from the others, so BTC borrowers and lenders are not affected by the collateral or solvency of other markets.

• Borrowing on Templar is simple. To start, you select an asset they will be depositing and stablecoin they would like to receive (type and network). Then select the size of the loan. Once the terms of the loan are finalized, a QR code or deposit address is provided as well as a destination address for the stablecoins (can be from a connected wallet). When the deposit transaction is finalized, you click borrow, signs a transaction, and then the stablecoins are released for withdraw to the provided address.

The amount you can borrow is a function of many different variables. In particular, the collateral type, dollar amount of collateral provided, the max borrow ratio a market allows, and total amount of stablecoins within the protocol. In general, it is recommended you keep 2–3X more collateral in the protocol than loan value to avoid being liquidated during volatile market conditions. 

To keep the upside potential of the collateral asset while gaining access to cash and to avoid incurring capital gains taxes from selling your assets. Since Templar does not require wrapping or bridging, borrowing does not trigger a taxable event. This is covered more in the use cases portion of the FAQ.

• When you would like to close out their borrow position, they must deposit the original principal taken out on their loan plus any accrued interest/fees. At that time the loan will be closed and the your collateral will be released.

Interest costs vary and are market-determined rates. Templar rates are typically in line with other defi lending rates. You can monitor the rates and accrued interest on the "My Account" tab of the app.

Borrow positions typically can remain open for as long as you like until you choose to repay or in the event of a liquidation. However, some loan products have a fixed maximum duration, e.g. 1 year, after which the loan will automatically close if the loan has not already been repaid. Upon auto-closure, the collateral will be used to repay the loan, and any remaining funds will be returned to the you.

• For stablecoin lenders, the onboarding process is extremely simple: pick a stablecoin to provide and a market to lend to. Then you send the stablecoins to the provided address and start earning rewards.

Templar currently has markets for USDC and USDT. Templar can add any stablecoin provided there’s pyth oracle support and the stablecoin is on a supported chain. If there’s a stablecoin that meets this criteria, you can create a new market that uses the stablecoin of your choosing.

Templar currently supports sending and receiving stablecoins on NEAR and Ethereum. We will expand to include Solana, Stellar, EVM L1s and L2s, and Bitcoin L2s in the future. You can find the full list of upcoming chain integrations in our Roadmap blog post.

As with most borrowing and lending markets, the primary yield for stablecoin lenders comes from borrowers. This includes several sources: interest rates paid by borrowers, origination fees to open a loan (if applicable), liquidation fees distributed to lenders, and additional incentives Templar may provide like Templar Points & cash incentives.

The yield for lending stablecoins varies depending on market conditions and Templar incentives. In the early days of Templar, yields will be higher due to incentives paid by Templar as USD and as points with total yields being 8-20%+. As time goes on, Templar incentives will play less of a role.

Stablecoins supplied to the protocol are used by borrowers. Overcollateralization requirements ensure there’s always sufficient collateral to protect lenders. During liquidation, lenders receive principal and owed interest, plus a liquidation fee bonus, if applicable.

Funds can be withdrawn any time, but under full usage, a FIFO queue is activated, and when loans are repaid/liquidated or new stables deposited into the market, users will be able to withdraw. Soft lockups apply (token rewards reduced for early withdrawals). High utilization would also mean the interest rate would be quite high, incentivizing new lenders to deposit.

The interest rate borrowers pay lenders follows an adaptive curve based on the percentage of total stablecoins utilized on Templar. For example, it may rise linearly from 2% APR at 0% utilization to 8% APR at 90% utilization. Above 90% utilization, rates increase dramatically to encourage more stablecoins to join the platform and benefit from the high yields. Learn more about this mechanism here.

Liquidations occur when a borrowed position falls below its minimum collateral ratio (MCR). Then, the underlying collateral can be purchased at a slight discount by a liquidator in exchange for paying off the loan, ensuring no bad debt for the protocol. Borrowers should avoid this at all costs to prevent losing money and potentially triggering a taxable event by ensuring loans are repaid and sufficient collateral is available to maintain a healthy collateral ratio.

The collateral ratio measures how much collateral a user has compared to their current debt position; it also serves as an indicator of the loan’s health. It’s calculated by dividing the dollar value of the collateral by the amount of debt borrowed against it. For example, if a user has a $100 debt backed by $200 in BTC, the user has a collateral ratio of 200%.

A collateral ratio of 200% to 300% is recommended to avoid liquidation risk. For risk-averse borrowers we recommend 400% or higher to ensure your collateral is highly secure against liquidation, giving you ample time to add more collateral or repay your loan if the market turns unfavorable.

The loan-to-value ratio (LTV), commonly used in finance to measure a loan’s risk, is the inverse of the collateral ratio. For example, a 200% collateral ratio equals a 50% LTV.

Yes. Anyone can execute a liquidation or run a liquidator bot. Please check out our github for liquidator examples: https://github.com/Templar-Protocol/

Partial liquidations work by allowing the liquidator to liquidate collateral up until the collateral ratio is considered "healthy" again. For BTC, that's 130% (liquidation at 120%)

Docs on liquidation:

Liquidators may also be stablecoin LPs, incentivized to act promptly to avoid losses. This dual role aligns economic incentives and ensures pool health.

Yes, liquidation should be avoided at all costs, partly because of the liquidation penalty. This penalty incentivizes liquidators to provide enough stablecoins to close the loan; in return, they purchase your collateral at a slight discount.

The main way to avoid liquidation is to add more collateral, moving your loan’s current borrow percentage to a healthier level. Alternatively, you can repay your loan when it nears the liquidation threshold.

The Minimum Collateral Ratio (MCR) is 120%. Due to the price of Bitcoin falling, a $100 debt position is now backed by $118 worth of BTC collateral, making the loan eligible for liquidation. A liquidator offers $112.10 for the BTC (95% of its value, as priced by an oracle), and the smart contract accepts the bid. The liquidator keeps part of the spread ($118 - $112.10 - slippage) and the stablecoin supplier and the protocol split the remaining amount after the outstanding loan is repaid ($112.10 - $100).

NEAR finality is <1 second, so loan repayment is instant. Releasing collateral from the MPC network takes under 1 minute. Actual withdrawal timing depends on the blockchain — e.g., BTC may take ~10 minutes.

There’s no formal backstop. Liquidators are incentivized via yield. Templar will add an insurance fund in the future

1. Pyth uses an EMA + confidence interval approach. Max staleness is 60-120s.

↳ Pyth Oracle EMA Model

2. Redstone pull feeds.

3. Chainlink and other oracles will be supported soon as well. See proxy oracle github for an up to date list of supported oracles.

The proxy oracle stores per-price proxy definitions, resolves underlying Pyth/RedStone/other sources asynchronously, applies freshness filters, aggregates the surviving prices, gates the result through per-proxy circuit breakers, and caches the latest per-price update result. It also includes a governance module that in some cases allows curators to update proxy oracles via a timelocked multisig.

See the proxy-oracle contract for more details.

The proxy oracle contract is audited by Halborn: Audit report.

Each market config defines the oracle price ID and decimal precision. Our markets typically handle most of the configuration at the proxy oracle layer.

See the proxy-oracle contract and proxy-oracle deployments for more details.

• Unlock BTC liquidity without triggering a taxable event or losing upside potential—especially valuable for long-term Bitcoin holders with significant capital gains.

• Borrow stablecoins against BTC without needing a smart contract wallet like MetaMask; users can send a BTC transaction and receive stablecoins directly in their preferred wallet, exchange, or network.

• Hedge BTC exposure by using borrowed stablecoins to go short on futures or purchase put options.

• Lend stablecoins on Templar to earn yields from interest rates, origination fees, and liquidation spreads.

• Increase portfolio leverage through looping, though this is recommended only for experienced DeFi users to avoid potential pitfalls.

• Access USD liquidity from BTC without navigating the restrictive KYC/AML processes of centralized institutions.

• Earn Templar platform rewards by participating in borrowing or lending; in some cases, this can lead to being paid to borrow, especially in the protocol’s early days.

• Deposit borrowed stablecoins into payment platforms that accept them, or convert USD to cover day-to-day expenses.

The risks within Templar arise from the MPC network, general borrow/lend market risks, oracle risk, and smart contract risk. Each one of these will be explained in more detail below.

• Templar splits shards of cryptographic keys among network parties, each contributing computation that forms a standard BTC transaction. With threshold MPC, a majority of nodes need to collude and agree on the destination address. Furthermore, the sharding of keys is randomized so collusion can only happen per account. The majority of MPC nodes are institutional validators and custody providers with reputations to protect and legal liability to consider.

• The MPC network’s code runs in a Trusted Execution Environment (TEE), a specialized hardware module that prevents malicious or unauthorized code from being injected or executed by nodes. The TEE also keeps node operators’ key shards secure and guards against long-range attacks.

• In the future, Templar also plans to support native Bitcoin multisigs for holding collateral where 1 key is held by the user to preserve self custody, 1 by the MPC network, and 1 by either a liquidator or custody provider that supports programmatic access or another MPC network. This allows for fund recovery in the event of MPC network down time.

Borrowing and lending platforms face the risk of bad debt leading to insolvency, a common issue with centralized institutions like BlockFi and Celsius in the crypto industry. In contrast, smart contract-enabled platforms like Aave and Templar mitigate this through overcollateralization and automated liquidations. Each Templar market has a minimum collateral ratio (MCR). When a loan is below the MCR, liquidators can liquidate the position by supplying stablecoins matching the user’s original principal, interest, and fees. In return, liquidators purchase the collateral at a discount, creating free-market-driven incentives to prevent bad debt in the protocol.

The NEAR Foundation is actively working on further decentralizing the network. More info on future of MPC decentralization

Since the MPC network uses threshold signatures, there's a level of redundancy in the event of a minority of node downtime which can be handled with retries.

To maintain overcollateralization, Templar requires real-time collateral valuation. We leverage the industry-leading Pyth and redstone oracles, which utilize a weighted median of prices across major centralized exchanges and uses a smoothed moving average to ensure accuracy and prevent oracle manipulation. Additionally, each lending market is isolated; if bad debt or market contagion occurs, it remains confined to that market. By contrast, a pool-based model lets contagion spread across markets, assets, and users.

Smart contract risks can be reduced through audits. Templar has 5 code audits and a formal verification audit of the market contract.  Templar audits

Certora, Halborn, Thesis Defense, Guvenkaya

Templar uses formal verification audit(by Certora), open-source contracts, contract immutability or timelocked multisigs, fuzzing, peer reviews, alerting & monitoring, risk dashboards, and TEE-based MPC nodes.

Templar market contracts are immutable after an initial deployment. Changes are made by deploying new contracts (versioning), similar to Uniswap or Bitcoin Core. In some cases with proxy oracle contracts, curators may hold timelocked multisig keys to respond dynamically to changing market conditions and oracle fidelity.

Templar Points are not yet live, but they will be our way of tracking and acknowledging Templar’s earliest supporters before we launch a token. The number of points awarded decreases over time, ensuring early users who take the greatest risks and bootstrap protocol liquidity are compensated most.

Templar incentivizes borrowing and lending with both merkl based cash incentives and with our forthcoming points program. The cash incentives lower borrowing rates and higher lending yields.

Templar does not collect or store personal information from any users.  This is one of the key principles of Cypher Lending.

Templar prioritizes user privacy and plans to enhance it over time. To prevent predatory liquidation hunting, we’ll implement differential privacy. Additionally, zero-knowledge proofs (ZK-proofs) will be used to maintain on-chain privacy, keeping loan information confidential while still verifiable. The Templar privacy roadmap can be found at this link.

The Templar logo and wordmark are available in black, white, and ivory at this link.

The Templar team reserves the right to request removal if the content misrepresents the brand.

No: all Templar brand elements are reserved for our products. The Templar team may request removal of content we don’t endorse.

You can create images and content using Templar brand elements; however, the Templar team reserves the right to request removal of any content.

Yes. See our github or contact our team for more details.

Templar’s roadmap focuses on enhancing its trust-minimized, privacy-first, chain agnostic lending platform with the following features:

• Privacy Enhancements: Private lending via ZCash & its shielded asset technology, wallet-less usage, differential privacy for liquidation obfuscation, onchain cash markets, and zero-knowledge smart contracts.

• Product Features: Flexible market parameters (rate curves, loan durations, fees), no liquidation loans, fixed interest rate loans, yield accrual on collateral, and a JS SDK for developer integrations.

• Ecosystem Integrations: Adapters for external lending protocols, yield and positional token integration.

For full details, see the Templar Roadmap.