@dweller I understood the leverage aspect as requiring the borrower to deposit a margin of fiat currency in order to be entitled to borrow 2.5x that value in BTC, repayable with a >10% APR in BTC, which appears to be confirmed by sdouglas.[1] If it were the other way round and TradeMore were giving borrowers access to additional funds on top of lenders', then presumably the owners of those funds would also expect a return...

@sdouglas As I understand it most other BTC borrowing is done at a fixed rather than floating interest rate, in which case I can't imagine why anyone would borrow from you except in those rare cases where liquidity dries up and they desperately need to borrow? Or why you'd want to lend only during low liquidity situations (or to incompetent borrowers) and only to borrowers whose trading position is exposed by that lack of liquidity?

[1]As a footnote, if I were running a business with that model I'd be happiest if the BTC ecosystem crashed, in which case my BTC liabilities and all the defaulting BTC loans might be worth less than the nice juicy chunks of fiat. It would be like holding subprime mortgages if house prices massively and unexpectedly soared!