About Ducat: non-custodial Bitcoin-backed credit on Layer 1

1. 01

   A one-time 7% charge instead of Ledn's 11.49% APR

   Ducat charges 0% ongoing interest and a one-time 7% minting service charge on the borrow amount, whereas Ledn charges 11.49% APR on loans under $250,000 and 9.25% APR on loans of $2,000,000 or more, with a 12-month standard loan term, as of September 2026. At those rates, Ledn's interest passes Ducat's one-time 7% after about 7.3 months (about 9.1 months at the 9.25% tier), so Ducat costs less on longer loans and Ledn costs less on shorter ones. Ledn states that a 2% administration fee is included where applicable, though not for clients in Canada and the United States, and that its rates and fees vary by jurisdiction, so the exact break-even differs from borrower to borrower.

2. 02

   Borrow up to 62.5% of BTC value, against Ledn's typical 50%

   Ducat lets a borrower borrow up to 62.5% of a vault's BTC value, which corresponds to Ducat's 160% minimum collateral ratio, whereas Ledn lists a typical initial loan-to-value ratio of 50%, as of September 2026. Ducat does not offer the highest loan-to-value in the market: Aave's WBTC and cbBTC markets on Aave V3 Ethereum Core allowed a higher maximum loan-to-value than 62.5% in September 2026, although that collateral is wrapped bitcoin rather than native BTC.

3. 03

   A liquidation price fixed at vault creation, unlike Ledn's daily-accruing loans

   Ducat calculates each vault's liquidation price when the vault opens, locks it and records it on-chain, and Ducat charges no ongoing interest, so no interest accrues while the vault is open. Ledn states that interest accrues daily and that at or above 80% loan-to-value, liquidation is automatic and irreversible: Ledn sells collateral to cover the outstanding balance, applies a 0.50% trade spread and returns any remainder, as of September 2026. A Ducat liquidation needs two independent confirmations, a Chainlink price attestation and a Guardian check against a secondary, non-Chainlink price feed, and it sells the vault's BTC to a liquidator at a discount, with penalties and fees that reduce what the borrower recovers.

4. 04

   BTC in a 2-of-2 vault, not in a lender's custody as with Ledn

   Ducat locks BTC in a 2-of-2 Taproot multisig vault on Bitcoin L1 that neither the borrower nor the Guardian network can move alone and whose BTC cannot be lent or rehypothecated, and Ducat has no admin keys and no ability to freeze vaults. Ledn states that collateral on its custodied loans remains in custody for the life of the loan and may only be re-posted to an institutional USD funding partner or a Ledn-sponsored financing vehicle, where it is legally ring-fenced or held in bankruptcy-remote structures and cannot be lent out for yield, as of September 2026. Separately, Celsius Network, a custodial lender that lent customer Bitcoin to institutional borrowers, froze withdrawals on 12 June 2022 and filed for bankruptcy in July 2022 owing its users about $4.7 billion (Bitcoin lending after Celsius).

5. 05

   Native BTC collateral, not WBTC or cbBTC as on Aave and Coinbase

   Ducat takes native BTC as collateral, and Ducat's BTC collateral is never bridged or wrapped: vaults, liquidations and redemptions settle on Bitcoin L1. Aave's bitcoin markets use tokens such as WBTC and cbBTC, and Coinbase states that its bitcoin-backed loans convert the pledged BTC to cbBTC, a token Coinbase describes as backed 1:1 by bitcoin it holds, and transfer it to a Morpho smart contract on Base, both as of September 2026. The no-wrapping point covers BTC collateral only: a Ducat borrower who chooses USDC receives USDC through a 1:1 conversion via the Circle SDK.

6. 06

   No KYC or identity documents, unlike Ledn and Unchained, but not unscreened

   Ducat asks for no KYC or identity documents, whereas Ledn states that identity verification and location eligibility apply, and Unchained's Terms of Service state that Unchained conducts full anti-money laundering and know-your-customer verification checks on its users, as of September 2026. Ducat still screens access: Ducat is unavailable to residents of 10 prohibited jurisdictions, uses IP geo-blocking and VPN detection, and its Terms geo-restrict some features elsewhere, including trade and swap features in all European Union member states (see the KYC answer below).

• BTC holders who want dollar liquidity in UNIT or USDC without selling their Bitcoin.
• Self-custody-first borrowers who do not want their Bitcoin in a company's hands, even during a loan.
• Borrowers who prefer not to submit KYC or identity documents, where Ducat is available: Ducat's Terms exclude residents of 10 prohibited jurisdictions and geo-restrict some features elsewhere.
• Borrowers who want credit with no ongoing interest, paying a one-time 7% minting service charge on the borrow amount instead: Ducat describes its zero-interest model, with no compounding or riba, as Sharia-compliant.
• BTC holders who put borrowed stablecoins into yield strategies while their BTC stays in a Ducat vault.
• Institutional borrowers, funds and treasury managers, whom Ducat's institutional page invites to integrate through the Rust-based Ducat SDK.
• Liquidators who recapitalise Ducat vaults below the 135% threshold in exchange for discounted BTC.
• Node operators who want to run Ducat validators to verify protocol state from Bitcoin data.

Ducat is not for borrowers who want a customer service team, a regulated counterparty with recourse, a long track record or someone else to manage their collateral ratio, and Ducat is not available to residents of 10 prohibited jurisdictions, with some features geo-restricted elsewhere.

David Evans

Co-Founder & CEO

David Evans is Ducat's Co-Founder and CEO, with a background in fintech; before founding Ducat, he built a crypto publisher. Evans is an early adopter of BTCFi with a track record of execution in emerging markets, and he writes most of the posts on the Ducat blog.

Alex Forshaw

Co-Founder & CPO

Alex Forshaw is Ducat's Co-Founder and CPO and spent over a decade on Wall Street as a long/short equity analyst and portfolio manager. Forshaw has four years in crypto, specialising in stablecoin design and decentralised credit systems.

Lucas Rodriguez Benitez

Co-Founder & CTO

Lucas Rodriguez Benitez is Ducat's Co-Founder and CTO, with eight years in blockchain, including government defence contracts and a real-world asset-backed stablecoin at END-Labs. Rodriguez Benitez was Blockchain Lead for Arcual and wrote Ducat's explainer on FROST threshold signing.

Ducat is a remote-first team of fintech operators, Wall Street veterans and blockchain engineers, led by its three co-founders, with decades of combined experience in blockchain engineering, fintech and capital markets. Ducat does not publish a headcount, and Ducat's website names only its three co-founders.

Backers

Ducat has raised $4M in total, as announced in May 2025. UTXO Management led Ducat's pre-seed round and Hivemind Capital led Ducat's strategic round, with participation from CMS and NATIVE (via the Echo platform), among others.

Oracle partner: Chainlink

Chainlink is Ducat's official oracle partner. Ducat worked with Chainlink to build a custom CRE (Chainlink Runtime Environment) integration for Bitcoin, announced in November 2025, in which Chainlink signs attestations of mainnet BTC/USD rates off-chain and the protocol consumes them through hash-lock commitments in Bitcoin OP_RETURN data. The Chainlink oracle cannot move funds, and Ducat's Guardian network cross-checks every Chainlink price against an independent secondary feed before co-signing a liquidation.