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Institutional Lending vs Unified Trading Account Manual Borrowing Comparison

2026-07-30 11:431529

Institutional Lending vs Unified Trading Account Manual Borrowing Comparison

 
Feature
Dimension
Participation conditions
 
Eligibility
All users (including VIP and PRO)
Supported accounts
  • Unified trading account (UTA)
  • (Note: Third-party custody/sub-accounts depend on specific permissions)
  • Supports unified trading account
  • Does not support third-party custodial accounts or custodial trading sub-accounts
Borrowing rules
 
Interest rate
Fixed interest rate (1 - 12 months) / 2.8 USDT%
Fixed interest rate (1 - 12 months) / USDT 2.8%
Interest calculation method
On-demand: interest accrued hourly
 
Interest accrued daily, settled monthly
Daily accrued interest = Outstanding principal × Daily interest rate
Borrowing currency
Supports 400+ crypto, supports rToken
USDT
Borrowing limit
USDT tens of millions
USDT tens of millions
Collateral currency
 
Supports more cryptocurrencies as collateral & 100+ rToken
Cryptocurrencies only
Borrowing leverage
 
Mainstream coins 10x
Small-cap coins 3-5x
5x
 
Loan disbursement account
Balance within the unified trading account. Borrowing 1M USDT adds the following to the unified trading account:
1M USDT equity
-1M USDGO liability
 
Note:
*USDGO : USDT = 1:1, applies only to the borrowing sub-account for manual borrowing
*Loans can be disbursed separately to individual sub-accounts
*Sub-accounts with manual borrowing cannot hold additional USDGO
Under the unified trading account, borrowing 1M USDT via the dedicated institutional lending sub-account within the risk unit adds the following to the risk sub-unit:
1M USDT equity
-1M USDT liability
 
Repayment rules
 
Repay anytime, interest is calculated based on actual usage time
 
Loan repayment date:
  • Agreed upon offline by both parties in the loan agreement
Repayment scenarios:
  1. Repayment at maturity: Supports repayment at maturity (i.e., repayment on the due date)
  2. Early repayment: Supports early repayment. If repaying mid-month, the repayment principal plus interest accrued from the 1st of the month to the repayment date must be paid.
  3. System-triggered liquidation repayment (when LTV ≥ 90%, the system triggers liquidation repayment to bring the LTV down to the 80% liquidation stop line)
Interest repayment rules
 
Automatically charged hourly
 
Interest is automatically collected by the system on the 1st of each month.
Please deposit the corresponding interest into the dedicated risk unit sub-account before the 1st of each month to prevent the LTV from rising after automatic interest deduction
Risk control rules
 
Core risk control metrics
Cross margin ratio (Margin Ratio)
Loan-to-value ratio (LTV)
MMR (Maintenance Margin Requirement)
Dynamic MMR: typically 2% - 5% (depending on the coin and position size).
Note: MMR is the liquidation trigger threshold, not the account's current ratio.
 
Fixed liquidation LTV: typically 90%.
Note: Institutional lending does not track MMR%, but instead monitors whether LTV reaches 90%.
 
LTV calculation formula
  • Risk ratio management for the risk unit is based on the loan-to-value ratio (LTV). The calculation formula is as follows: LTV = (Outstanding loan principal + outstanding loan interest) / Total risk unit asset value
  • Outstanding loan refers to: Outstanding loan = Outstanding loan principal + outstanding loan interest
  • Total risk unit asset value = Sum( Min( Positive equity of margin currencies in the risk unit's sub-unified trading account × USD index price × discount rate, maximum discounted amount )) − Sum( Negative equity of margin currencies in the risk unit's sub-unified trading account × USD index price )
    • Currency equity = Balance + Margin used + Unrealized PnL
Liquidation price level (Price Level)
 
Relatively far. Triggered when the account's net value falls to near the total liabilities.
For example, if the collateral is BTC, liquidation is triggered when the price drops by approximately 45% - 48%.
 
Relatively close but controllable. Triggered when LTV rises to 90%.
For example, if the collateral is BTC, liquidation is triggered when the price drops by approximately 40% - 42%.
(Because the collateral discount rate for institutional lending is typically lower, resulting in a smaller denominator, LTV rises faster)
Effective margin (Eff. Margin)
High availability. All assets are converted at the discount rate, minus margin used. Available assets = sum (Asset * Price * Haircut) - Margin used
Risk unit isolation. Only assets bound within the risk unit are calculated.
Formula: sum (Unit Asset * Price * Haircut)
Liquidation buffer
Small. Once MMR is reached, the system immediately executes liquidation at market price, which may result in slippage losses.
Large. Once LTV reaches 90%, the system first attempts "lossless repayment" (transferring available assets) before forcing position reduction.
Liquidation process
Pre-deleveraging (pre-liquidation) verification
Under Pro mode, the forced deleveraging process is triggered when the account margin ratio reaches a specific threshold.
  1. When the cross margin ratio ≥ 80%, the system will issue a pre-deleveraging warning.
• Users should take timely action to reduce risk. (Bitget reserves the right to adjust this parameter as needed.)
  1. When the cross margin ratio ≥ 100%, the system will initiate pre-deleveraging order cancellation according to the following rules:
• Cancel related open orders.
• If the margin ratio remains ≥ 100% after order cancellation, the account will trigger forced deleveraging.
 
Forced deleveraging (forced liquidation)
• Forced deleveraging is divided into three stages.
• At each stage, positions are transferred to the liquidation engine for processing based on the current mark price.
• The system will charge maintenance margin based on the amount reduced, to cover potential slippage risk. Any remaining funds will be transferred entirely to Bitget's insurance fund.
Stage 1: Two-way position reduction
• In open/close position mode, reduce long and short positions in opposite directions under the same contract.
Stage 2: Collateral conversion
If all positions in Stage 1 have been closed but the account is still unsafe:
• The system will convert high-discount-rate assets (assets with high margin contribution) into liability assets. This both increases effective margin and repays liabilities, releasing margin that was already in use.
Stage 3: Non-two-way position reduction
If all operations in Stage 2 still fail to restore account safety:
• The system will reduce the remaining non-two-way positions, prioritizing the positions with the greatest risk-reducing effect.
• Each reduction lowers the risk level by one tier, until the account returns to a safe state.
If all futures positions have been reduced to the lowest tier and the account still cannot be restored:
• Bitget will take over the user's account and remaining assets.
• If liquidation results in a negative balance on the account, the insurance fund will be used to cover the shortfall, and the system will generate a liquidation compensation record on the user's account.
 
Liquidation handling (new process )
When the risk ratio reaches or exceeds 90%, the liquidation repayment process is as follows:
  1. Cancel open orders: Cancel open orders for spot, USDT/USDC perpetual futures, and Coin-M Futures under the UTA.
  2. Lossless repayment: If transferring UTA transferable assets for repayment can reduce the account's risk ratio to 80%, the system will automatically transfer available UTA assets for repayment, ending the liquidation.
 
Otherwise, the following measures will be taken:
  1. Transferable asset conversion repayment: Transfer the margin currencies for institutional lending in the UTA account and execute conversion repayment. Example: Assume a user's institutional lending repayment amount due is 100,000 USDT, and the user's account holds 3 BTC. If the BTC conversion price (including slippage) is 30,000 USDT, the amount after converting BTC to USDT is 90,000 USDT, leaving the user with a remaining repayment amount of 10,000 USDT
     
    1. IMR 100% repayment: Transfer margin currencies in the UTA account with currency equity > 0, until IMR >= 100%.
    Example: Assume a user's institutional lending repayment amount due is 100,000 USDT, the USDT account balance in the UTA account is 10,000 USDT, and the user's unrealized USDT PnL is 30,000 USDT. Working backward, when IMR reaches 100%, 20,000 USDT can be reduced. The UTA account can then transfer 20,000 USDT to repay the institutional lending. The user's remaining wallet balance is -10,000 USDT, with unrealized USDT PnL of 30,000 USDT.
     
    5. MMR 100% repayment: Transfer margin currencies in the UTA account with currency equity > 0, until MMR >= 100%.
    Example: Assume a user's institutional lending repayment amount due is 100,000 USDT, the USDT account balance in the UTA account is 10,000 USDT, and the user's unrealized USDT PnL is 30,000 USDT. Working backward, when MMR reaches 100%, 20,000 USDT can be reduced. The UTA account can then transfer 20,000 USDT to repay the institutional lending. The user's remaining wallet balance is -10,000 USDT, with unrealized USDT PnL of 30,000 USDT.
     
    6. Negative balance breach handling: If after completing all the above processes the institutional lending is still in a negative balance breach state, it will be handled according to the negative balance breach compensation process specified in the signed contract.
     
    7. Liquidation clearing fee
    When a user is liquidated, the lending insurance fund will charge a certain percentage as a clearing fee. However, users are advised to strictly manage risk to avoid liquidation. The liquidation clearing fee formula is as follows:
    Liquidation clearing fee = Liquidated assets × 2%
     
    8. Relationship between institutional lending liquidation and unified trading account liquidation
    If a unified sub-account is already undergoing liquidation and institutional lending liquidation is also triggered, the institutional lending liquidation will skip that unified sub-account
Trading restrictions
No special restrictions; subject to the cross margin ratio
 
LTV trading restriction description
  • ≥ 80%
    • Restrict asset transfers out: This refers to restrictions on transferring assets from the sub-unified trading account within the risk unit to other accounts.
    • The maximum transferable amount is determined by the risk ratio. When the risk ratio is < 80%, excess collateral assets within the risk unit can be transferred out of the risk unit, provided the risk ratio does not reach ≥ 80% after the transfer
  • ≥ 85%
    • Restrict spot buying: This refers to prohibiting spot buy trades in the sub-unified trading account within the risk unit
    • Restrict futures position opening: This refers to prohibiting the opening of futures positions in the sub-unified trading account within the risk unit (USDT-M futures, Coin-M Futures, USDC futures)
  • ≥ 90%
    • Restrict spot trading: This refers to prohibiting spot trading in the sub-unified trading account within the risk unit
    • Restrict futures trading: This refers to prohibiting futures trading in the sub-unified trading account within the risk unit (USDT-M futures, Coin-M Futures, USDC futures)

Example

Assume the customer's principal is BTC equivalent to 1M USDT, and applies to borrow 1M USDT
 
 
Product
Loan disbursement account
Balance within the unified trading account
Risk sub-unit
Account changes after loan disbursement
 
Account changes:
  • Unified trading account-BTC: Value $1M (98% discount rate)
  • Unified trading account-USDT: +$1M (available balance)
  • Unified trading account-USDGO: -$1M (liability)
    • USDGO : USDT = 1:1, applies only to the borrowing sub-account for manual borrowing
 
*Loans can be disbursed separately to individual sub-accounts
*Sub-accounts with manual borrowing cannot hold additional USDGO
  • Account changes:
    • Dedicated sub-account-BTC: Value $1M (98% discount rate)
    • Dedicated sub-account-USDT: +$1M
    • Dedicated sub-account-liability: -$1M USDT
 
*Loans are disbursed only to the risk sub-unit
 
MMR/LTV changes after loan disbursement
 
  • Effective margin = 1M * 98% + 1M - 1M (liability) = 0.98M
  • Leveraged position value = 1M
  • Account leverage = 1M/ 0.98M = 1.02x
  • Maintenance margin = Borrowed asset quantity × Borrowed asset USD price × Maintenance margin rate = 1M * 5% = 0.05M (maintenance margin rate 5%)
  • Cross margin ratio = (Maintenance margin + Position reduction fee 0.06%) ÷ Effective margin = (0.05M + 2M * 0.06% ) / 0.98M = 17.3%
  • Spot transferable funds = Max(0,Min[Max(0,Balance+Available unrealized PnL-Borrowed amount),Available margin discounted currency quantity]) = 0.98M
  • Initial LTV = $1M / ($1M + $1M) = 50%.
  • Transferable funds: When the risk ratio < 80%, excess collateral assets within the risk unit can be transferred out of the risk unit, provided the risk ratio does not reach ≥ 80% after the transfer.
    • Transferable funds = 1M * 98% + 1M - 1M/80% = 0.73M
  • Advantage: Even if other strategies in the main account incur losses, this loan will not be liquidated as long as this risk unit's LTV < 90%.
 
Liquidation process
When the cross margin ratio ≥ 100%, the system will initiate pre-deleveraging order cancellation according to the following rules; if the margin ratio remains ≥ 100% after order cancellation, the account will trigger forced deleveraging.
 
When the risk ratio reaches or exceeds 90%, the liquidation repayment process is as follows:
  1. Cancel open orders: Cancel open orders for spot, USDT/USDC perpetual futures, and Coin-M Futures under the UTA.
  2. Lossless repayment: If transferring UTA transferable assets for repayment can reduce the account's risk ratio to 80%, the system will automatically transfer available UTA assets for repayment, ending the liquidation.

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