NEWSLETTER
Founder: Max in (CEO)
Founded date: March 2024
Location of the headquarters: Lugano, Switzerland
Website: https://debifi.com/
Public or private? Private
Max Kei is a builder in the bitcoin P2P space, as well as an experienced banker, which does it uniquely to create DebillionA non -custodial P2P loan platform, backed by bitcoin, which mainly serves institutions.
Kei's work in bitcoin's space began in 2017, when he contributed for the first time to Hodl Hodl, which quickly became a broadly custodial P2P negotiation platform widely used.
In 2020, he helped the exchange to launch LendThe first loan product and non -custodial P2P loan in the bitcoin space.
The product won traction in Latin America and Southeast Asia, where it was used to facilitate micro -oloneros, while the tastes of Preston Pysh (now debifi strategic advisor) <a target="_blank" href="https://podcasts.apple.com/sg/podcast/btc015-bitcoin-peer-to-peer-decentralized-lending-w/id928933489?i=1000511368553″ target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>He was interested in the product and recognized cypherpunk adam too <a target="_blank" href="https://x.com/hodlhodl/status/1862505235647746055″ target=”_blank”>He sang his praises.
According to Kei, it is the high quality reputation of the team behind Lind in Hodl Hodl, some of which now work on debifi, which attracts users to Debifi.
“Many lenders and borrowers are going to debifi because they know that the team has a very extensive experience,” Kei told bitcoin magazine.
“People are satisfied, since we have gone through multiple cycles of bears and we survive,” he added.
“Now, we have taken the concept of loan in Hodl Hodl and moved to the institutional space.”
Banquero to Bitcoiner
For 10 years before finding bitcoin, Kei worked as a private banker.
He resigned from his position before “going to the burrow of bitcoin rabbit” at the end of 2015, partly as a reaction to an experience he had with one of his clients.
“A year before quitting smoking, I was sitting at a meeting at the bank's office with one of my customers and he showed me his phone and said 'You know at some point in the future, I will not need you because I have bitcoin,” Kei said.
Then, the client proceeded to send $ 15,000 in bitcoin to a contact of his in Brazil, according to Kei, who thought for himself that his client was crazy. However, Kei did not take long to realize that his client was not crazy, but instead, in something.
“I started doing my own research, and I quickly realized that bitcoin is something real,” Kei said.
Kei turned bitcoin shortly after. However, after spending eight years building in the bitcoin space, he has come to believe that banks will still have a role in a hyperbitcoinized future.
“The banks are not going to disappear,” Kei explained.
“They will become infrastructure suppliers for bitcoin companies, for new companies, for all. They will still be a spine, ”he added.
He realized this when banks and other financial institutions began to express interest in using the LEND product in Hodl Hodl.
Differentiating with debifi
A few months after launching LEND in Hodl Hodl, the institutions communicated with the Hodl Hodl team requesting the platform.
“They said 'hey, we want to be available for bitcoin loans,” Kei recalled.
“But we didn't want to mix the world of microlendos with the world of institutional loans. We realized that we needed to do something different. This is how the concept of debifi arose, ”he added.
In 2022, Kei began to make a rain of ideas about debifi. A year later, they raised money from risk capital companies, including Ten31 and TIMECHAIN To build a minimum viable product (MVP). By March 2024, Debifi was live.
The platform has been operating in Beta, and the official version will be launched at the end of the month. That said, Kei explained that Debifi is already fully functional.
“The fact that the product is in beta does not mean that it is not operational, it is actually completely operational,” he said.
And so, this leads us to the next question: how does Debifi work?
How Debifi works
Debifi is both a website and a mobile application, and the two work together.
“We have a very unique value proposal is that the mobile application acts as a key storage,” Kei said. “The mobile application becomes a wallet, storing its private key, but you must use the website to participate in contracts.”
When signing a transaction, create a guarantee deposit for a loan or pay a loan, use the mobile application to do so.
Users can also choose to use the Cold The devices (the MK4 or the Q) instead of the mobile application, and Kei also hopes to add support for other hardware wallets.
“We want to support Blockstream Jade, Ledger devices, Trezor devices, the Bitbox Foundation Passport, all these good names, because we want to provide flexibility to our customers,” Kei explained.
The guarantee for debifertal loans adheres to a multisignura wallet (Multisig) with four keys, three of which are necessary to sign the transactions.
“In Debifi, we have a unique multiple signature configuration,” Kei said. “All loans are carried out in a 3-out-4 multiple wallet, while the standard is 2 of 3”.
The borrower, the lender and the debifi have a key each, while the room is in the hands of Anchorwatch. Kei states that having a fourth key maintained by a reliable institution such as Anchorwatch drastically increases security.
“With two institutions that have keys, even if the keys of the lender and the borrower are compromised in some way, it still needs to obtain a key,” said Kei. “If we eliminate Anchorwatch and we go with a simple model of 2 of 3, then we could end up in a situation in which the attackers have two keys and the attacker does not need a third key.”
Debifi loans are overlaterly (forced liquidations occur if the bitcoin guarantee value falls below a certain level, which varies depending on the agreement between the borrower and the lender) and the approve average is fair above 10%.
Kei explained that his team's investigation has shown that many are willing to pay the highest APR for non -custodial loans.
“A while ago, we talked to 300 bitcoiners and gave them a very simple option: you can custodially borrow from an interest rate of 8% or you can borrow non -exhaustively at an interest rate of 11% or 12%,” he explained. “91% of people said they would prefer to keep their keys.”
Users can make loans up to $ 1 million through the platform and loan durations range between three and 12 months. As of April, this will expand to 24 months.
Users can borrow in American dollar stable, US dollars, euros and Swiss francs, and Debifi is working to add British pounds, Brazilian real and Mexican weights to that list.
Debifi monetizes through the origin rates, which is taken from the guarantee guarantee, and has a dispute resolution equipment that helps solve loan reimbursements and other problems.
What's still for debifi?
As mentioned, debifi alone <a target="_blank" href="https://www.thestreet.com/crypto/innovation/preston-pysh-joins-debifi-to-strengthen-bitcoin-backed-lending” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>brought to Preston Pysh as a strategic advisor In efforts to help the company with networks and advertising. PYSH will also provide advice on how to improve the debifi product.
The company also plans to associate with <a target="_blank" href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/digital-assets/2025/01/23/blockstreams-plan-to-win-over-institutional-bitcoin-investors-with-an-emphasis-on-yield/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>BLOCSTREAM ASSETS MANAGEMENT DIVISION (BAM). BAM will use debifi as a technical provider for institutions that seek to offer loan products supported by bitcoin.
Beyond that, Kei said that there are also other important associations in process, and that Debifi will announce them in the coming months.
And concluded with a launch to all the institutions that could be interested in working with debifi.
“Debifi helps you connect and play in the world of loans backed by bitcoin as an institution,” Kei said.
“We provide all the necessary infrastructure. On board and we will guide it with private support. We will give you all the necessary tools, ”he added.
“Indeed, we will be like a unique window. Not only does not have to build these things because it is already there, but we bring customers, with which we allow you to communicate directly. And the best part is that, as a liquidity provider, it pays us nothing. Zero.”
It is difficult not to argue that Kei and his team are in something here.
