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Price
What does an advance cost?
One fixed fee: a fixed fee of 9.25% of the advance, paid in USDT or USDC and stated in your Advance Confirmation before the advance is made. You know the fee before you sign. It is set once, it does not accrue, compound or change with time, and repaying early does not reduce it. It is paid in two equal halves: the upfront half is deducted when the advance is paid to you, and the maturity half is due with your repayment. On an advance of USDT 100,000 the fee is USDT 9,250.
See the fees → · How a fixed fee compares with other pricing →
Is anything added if we pay late, and are there other costs?
Paying late adds no fee, and a default adds no extra fee. If you do not repay at maturity, we may apply your collateral without further notice. Other costs are charged at actual cost, with no mark-up: network fees on transfers to and from your vault; trading, venue and counterparty fees if collateral is sold; and registration and notarial fees if a filing protects the security. Enforcement costs, including reasonable legal fees, can also apply, as can VAT where payable and a tax gross-up if tax must be withheld from a payment. Pass-through costs cannot be known in advance.
Collateral and custody
Which assets can we pledge?
Bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), solana (SOL), XRP and BNB, with more to come. Each is accepted as the native asset on its own network only. Wrapped, bridged or staked versions and other tokens are not accepted.
If you hold something else, ask us.
How much can we borrow against our collateral?
At most 60% of the collateral value when the advance is made. That is the rate for bitcoin. The advance rate and levels for other assets are set for each asset and stated in your Advance Confirmation. The minimum and maximum amounts are agreed for each advance and stated in your Advance Confirmation.
Where is our collateral held, and who can move it?
In a vault set up solely for you on the Fireblocks platform. It is never mixed with Boxwind CR's assets or any other client's, and Boxwind CR has agreed not to lend, re-pledge, rehypothecate, stake or delegate it, put it in a protocol or use it for anyone's account. Our transaction policy requires at least two authorised approvers for any transfer out of your vault. That is a policy, not a guarantee. You can ask for a statement of what is held for you at any time.
Boxwind CR may move your collateral to a replacement custody arrangement on at least 10 business days' notice, or at once if security requires. Its liability is limited, and custody carries insolvency and technology risks: see the risk disclosure.
Do we earn anything on the collateral we pledge?
No. Because it is not lent or used, you earn no yield on it while it is pledged, and ETH, SOL or BNB is not staked, so you earn no staking rewards. That is the trade-off for having it held in a vault set up only for you, and a real cost for assets that can be staked.
Do we still own our collateral?
Yes. You keep ownership, subject to Boxwind CR's security over it. Moving it into the vault secures the advance and is not a sale, but Boxwind CR has exclusive possession and control of it while it is pledged and may sell it in the circumstances the agreement sets out.
Can we add collateral, or take some back?
You can add collateral at any time, subject to our due diligence and custody requirements. Getting some back before you repay is possible only in the cases set out under release of excess collateral.
What if we send an asset to the wrong address or network, or an XRP transfer without its tag?
You are responsible for sending to the address we issue, on the network we name for that asset (the table in How it works). We are not liable for assets sent to an incorrect address or network, and an asset sent on the wrong network can be lost for good, so check before you send. We suggest a small test transfer first.
XRP: the deposit address comes with a destination tag, and you must include it with every XRP transfer. Without the tag we may not be able to match the transfer to your vault, and it may be lost or delayed. We give you the address and the tag together, and we tell you if the tag changes.
Can we pledge more than one asset at once?
If you want to pledge more than one asset, ask us at hello@boxwind.io before you apply.
If the price falls
What happens if the price of your collateral falls?
Your LTV rises. We warn you at 75%, send a Top-Up Notice at 80%, may sell part of your collateral at 85% and may close out at 90%. If several levels are reached at once, we may act on the highest. What each level means, with an example, is on If the price falls.
How is LTV worked out, how is the price set, and do you watch it at weekends?
LTV (loan-to-value) is everything you owe, including any unpaid fee, divided by the collateral value. We monitor it continuously, including outside business days. Watching it is also your responsibility, and a notice may not reach you in time. For each asset we use the median of the US dollar prices from at least two reputable sources that we select: how the price is decided →
How much warning do we get before a sale, and can a sale happen during the 24 hours?
At 75% we make reasonable efforts to tell you. No action is required at this level, but you still owe the full amount. At 80% we send a Top-Up Notice with 24 hours to act. A top-up is collateral added, or enough repaid, to bring your LTV back below 75%, and it counts only once the collateral has the confirmations or finality its network requires, or the repayment has arrived in cleared funds.
Prices can move fast, so you may get little or no notice before a sale becomes possible. A sale can happen during the 24 hours: if your LTV reaches 85% while they are running, we may sell immediately and without further notice enough collateral to bring it below 75%. We decide how much to sell, acting in a commercially reasonable manner. In a fast fall, more may be sold.
What if the price falls before we are paid?
If it falls between signing and payment, we may reduce the advance so it stays within 60% of the collateral value, or delay payment until you add more collateral.
Can we owe more than our collateral is worth?
Yes, if a sale does not cover what you owe. The shortfall remains a debt you must pay on demand.
Repaying
How do we repay, and when is our collateral released?
In full at maturity, in your advance currency, on the network named in your Advance Confirmation, in cleared funds. We then release your collateral, as set out under repay and release →
Can we repay early or in part, or extend an advance?
Repay all or part at any time before maturity, on one business day's notice, with no penalty. The fee is unchanged. A partial repayment lowers your advance and your LTV, but not the fee.
An extension needs a new Advance Confirmation and a new fee, signed by both sides before maturity. Nothing renews automatically.
What if our stablecoin is worth less than a dollar when we repay?
If your stablecoin's reference price is below USD 0.99 when you repay, you pay enough units to equal the dollars due. You may instead pay in the other stablecoin, one for one, if its reference price is not below USD 0.99.
Eligibility and onboarding
Who can apply, and what do you need from us?
Businesses, HNW individuals and professional investors, subject to due diligence. Box Advance is not available to retail consumers, and we may ask for evidence of your status. For a business we need constitutional documents, a board resolution, evidence of beneficial owners and specimen signatures, and we carry out due diligence on the company, its owners and directors, and the collateral. For an individual, the checks are on the person.
What are the steps from first contact to payment?
Six steps, from a first conversation to payment. You send no collateral until you have signed the agreement, and we pay nothing until both sides have signed an Advance Confirmation.
Do you check where our collateral came from?
Yes. Our due diligence covers the collateral as well as you, including source-of-funds checks and blockchain analysis.
Is an advance guaranteed once we apply?
No. Every application is subject to due diligence, and we may decline any application or request. Nothing on this site is an offer. Each advance is made at our discretion, and only once both sides have signed an Advance Confirmation.
Where is the advance paid?
To a whitelisted account in your name, less the upfront half of the fee. We never pay an advance to a third party.
Are there countries you cannot serve?
Box Advance is not offered to persons in, or connected with, countries subject to comprehensive sanctions or that Boxwind CR has decided to restrict. The current list is available on request: ask us at notices@boxwind.io.
The company and the contract
Who do we contract with, and is it a bank?
Boxwind CR, S.R.L., a company incorporated in Costa Rica (cédula jurídica 3-102-887839). It is the lender, custodian and secured party: the company you contract with. Boxwind CR is not a bank or other supervised financial entity. An advance is not a deposit and is not insured.
What law applies?
The laws of England and Wales. Disputes are settled by LCIA arbitration seated in London.
Do you give tax, legal or investment advice?
No. Take your own advice. A sale of your collateral may be a taxable disposal for you.
How will you contact us about our advance?
Operational notices, such as warnings, Top-Up Notices and sale statements, may go by email, SMS, messaging application or client portal to your authorised people. Formal notices go in writing.
How do we contact you or make a complaint?
Write to hello@boxwind.io for questions and support. Complaints, legal notices and data-protection requests go to notices@boxwind.io. The complaints procedure is on its own page.
Glossary
The words, in plain English
The main terms used on this site and in the agreement, in plain words. Where the agreement uses capital letters, so do we. The levels are explained on If the price falls.
No matching term. Try one word, or search the questions.
- Advance
- The amount in USDT or USDC that Boxwind CR pays you against your pledged collateral, as set out in an Advance Confirmation. It is counted before the upfront half of the fee is deducted.
- Advance Confirmation
- The document signed by both sides for one advance. It sets out that advance's specific terms: the fee, the maturity date, the whitelisted account, and the starting LTV and levels. You propose it, and we may accept, vary or decline it.
- Advance Currency
- USDT or USDC, as stated in the Advance Confirmation, on the network stated there.
- Advance rate
- 60%. All your advances together can be at most 60% of the collateral value at the moment each advance is made. That is the rate for bitcoin.
- Amount Owed
- Everything you owe on an advance: the advance, any part of the fee not yet paid, and any other amount then payable under the agreement.
- Authorised Person
- You, and each individual you nominate by written notice to act for you, if you are a company. We may rely on instructions we reasonably believe an Authorised Person gave, and each one must be reachable at all times by email and telephone.
- Business Day
- A day other than a Saturday, Sunday or public holiday on which banks are open for general business in San José, Costa Rica, and New York.
- Chain Event
- A fork, airdrop, token migration, contract upgrade, consensus failure, network halt or similar event on the network of an asset you pledge. We are not obliged to support an asset that arises from one.
- Collateral
- The assets you transfer to your vault, any you add later, and the proceeds of any sale. The assets are bitcoin, ether, solana, XRP and BNB, with more to come.
- Collateral Value
- The quantity of each asset in your vault multiplied by its reference price at that moment, added together.
- Cure Period
- The 24 hours that start when a Top-Up Notice is sent. In that time you add collateral or repay enough to bring your LTV back below the warning level.
- Destination tag
- A number that an XRP transfer must carry so the receiver can tell whose deposit it is. Our XRP deposit address comes with a tag, and a transfer sent without the right tag may be lost or delayed.
- Eligible Asset
- An asset we accept as collateral, as the native asset on its own network. These are bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), solana (SOL), XRP and BNB, with more to come.
- Event of Default
- Any of the events listed in clause 17.1 of the agreement, such as not paying when due, not restoring your LTV within the cure period, your LTV reaching the full close level, insolvency, sanctions, or a change of control without our consent. After one, we may declare everything owed due and sell collateral.
- Fixed fee
- The single amount, in USDT or USDC (the Advance Currency), that you pay for an advance. It is stated in the Advance Confirmation before the advance is made, and it does not accrue, compound or change with time. Pass-through costs and enforcement costs are separate.
- Full close level
- 90% LTV. Everything you owe falls due, and we may sell enough collateral to clear it.
- Ineligibility Event
- An event that makes an asset ineligible as collateral, for example it stops trading on enough major venues, its network halts or suffers a Chain Event, our custody provider stops supporting it, or an authority restricts it. We may then require extra collateral or a part repayment within five business days or sooner, and may value the asset at zero until it is remedied.
- LTV
- Loan-to-value: everything you owe, including any unpaid fee, divided by the collateral value. Each unit of USDT or USDC you owe counts as USD 1.00.
- Maturity Date
- The date stated in the Advance Confirmation, or the next business day if that day is not one. The advance and the maturity half of the fee are due then.
- Maturity fee
- The second half of the fixed fee. It is due on the maturity date with the advance, or earlier if what you owe becomes due early. It stays payable if you repay early.
- Network
- The blockchain an asset lives on: for example the Bitcoin network, Ethereum mainnet, Solana, the XRP Ledger or BNB Smart Chain. Each asset is deposited to an address on its own network and nowhere else. Sending on the wrong network can lose the asset.
- Network confirmation
- A transfer counts as received only once it has the confirmations, or the finality, that its network requires. A top-up counts only from that point.
- Partial Sale Level
- 85% LTV. We may sell immediately, without further notice and even during the 24 hours, enough collateral to bring your LTV below 75%.
- Reference Price
- For each asset, the median of the US dollar prices from at least two reputable sources that we select. How the price is decided. A stablecoin is not assumed to be worth exactly USD 1.00.
- Rehypothecation
- Re-using pledged collateral, for example by lending it on or pledging it again. Under the agreement, Boxwind CR has agreed not to do this with your collateral.
- Release level
- 60% LTV. Advances are at most 60% of collateral value when made. Below it you may ask for excess collateral back, on the conditions set out under release of excess collateral.
- Sale statement
- The statement we give you within one business day of a sale: the quantity sold, the prices obtained, the costs deducted and how the proceeds were applied.
- Sanctions
- Economic or financial sanctions, trade embargoes or export controls imposed by Costa Rica, the United Nations or any other authority with jurisdiction over a party. Becoming subject to them is an Event of Default.
- Schedule 2
- The part of the agreement that sets the eligible assets, the advance rate, the LTV levels, the cure period and the price sources. We may change it on at least 30 days' notice. A change applies to future advances. It does not affect an advance whose Advance Confirmation is already signed, except a change about eligible assets.
- Secured Obligations
- All your present and future obligations under the agreement. Your collateral is pledged as security for them, and the security stays in place until they are all paid in full.
- Shortfall
- What is left owing if the proceeds of a sale do not cover everything you owe. It remains a debt, payable on demand.
- Stablecoin
- A digital asset designed to hold a steady value against a currency. In this agreement, USDT or USDC against the US dollar. It is not assumed to be worth exactly USD 1.00.
- Starting LTV
- Your LTV immediately after the advance is made. It is stated in the Advance Confirmation. Example in bitcoin: 2.0000 BTC at USD 100,000 is worth 200,000, and 104,625 divided by 200,000 gives 52.3%.
- Top-up level
- 80% LTV. We send a Top-Up Notice and you have 24 hours to get back below 75%.
- Top-Up Notice
- Our notice that your LTV has reached the top-up level. It states your LTV and the collateral value, or the repayment, needed to restore your LTV to below the warning level.
- Upfront fee
- The first half of the fixed fee. It is deducted from the advance when it is paid to you, it is earned when the advance is made, and it is never refunded.
- Vault
- The segregated vault set up solely for you on the Fireblocks platform, which holds your collateral and nobody else's. It also means any replacement custody arrangement we move your collateral to, on at least 10 business days' notice or at once for security. We keep exclusive possession and control of the collateral while it is pledged.
- Warning level
- 75% LTV. We make reasonable efforts to tell you. No action is required at this level, but you still owe the full amount.
- Whitelisted account
- A wallet in your name, listed in your Advance Confirmation. We pay and release only to whitelisted accounts. A new one counts only after our verification checks.