Before we proceed, we want to remind you that using flowty involves risks (some discussed in this post) and can have adverse outcomes for Borrowers, Lenders and other platform participants. The following is not financial advice, and we ask and encourage you to consult a qualified financial advisor and tax expert to understand the full implications and consequences of using flowty.
Introduction
In exciting news, flowty now supports FLOW, Flow blockchain’s native token, and USDC loan listings. Supporting FLOW means lenders can now participate in the flowty ecosystem while retaining the upside of FLOW if they so choose (please review the risks we have highlighted below before considering a non-stablecoin based loan).
When Flowty launched in early February, loans could only be be denominated in FUSD (Flow blockchain’s stablecoin). Subsequently, we added support for tUSDT (teleported USDT — the Flow blockchain version of USDT), another stablecoin. Exclusively supporting stablecoins was a strategic decision by the team.
A flowty loan is a relatively complex transaction with several inherent risks. Supporting loans in a non-stablecoin token introduces yet another variable to the equation. The fluctuations in the underlying token’s value during the term of a loan will impact both a Borrower’s and Lender’s experience.
Our goal was to allow our users and the Flow blockchain community to have some time to explore the platform, utilize our services, and better understand a flowty transaction before we added another variable (non-stablecoin token fluctuations during a loan term) for users to consider.
What makes a FLOW-based loan riskier than a stablecoin loan?
At the time of writing, one FLOW token is worth about $7. The following two scenarios outline the additional risk inherent to Borrowers and Lenders transacting in FLOW (or any other non-stablecoin token).
Assume in each representative scenario that the loan amount is 100 FLOW and repayment is 110 FLOW:
Scenario 1: FLOW = $7 today, FLOW = $25 at repayment
Lender funds loan ($700 in FLOW tokens); Borrower needs to repay 110 FLOW (now $2,750 - because FLOW tokens are worth $25 each on the repayment date). If a Borrower has not kept loan proceeds in FLOW, the repayment burden may be much higher than expected, potentially leading to a loan default.
Scenario 2: FLOW = $7 today, FLOW = $1 at repayment
Lender funds loan ($700 in FLOW tokens); Borrower needs to repay 110 FLOW (now $110 - because FLOW tokens are worth $1 each on the repayment date). While the Lender would receive 110 FLOW tokens in a repayment scenario, from a USD perspective, the lender has lost a significant portion of his or her upfront investment.
The above dynamics may be attractive to some users who are interested in layering on additional elements to a stablecoin loan. Lenders can view FLOW-based listings as a way to gain additional exposure to FLOW tokens during the term of a loan.
We encourage users to review these scenarios and ensure that all potential consequences and outcomes are considered before funding or listing a non-stablecoin loan.
The flowty community is ready
We are adding support for FLOW in response to a number of requests from our userbase. Users interacting with decentralized exchanges typically have access to FLOW rather than FUSD, which means that funding an FUSD loan requires an additional step (swapping from FLOW to tUSDT or FUSD) and minor expense.
In addition, a number of users have been staking FLOW and are interested in unstaking and moving directly into providing flowty loans without losing the upside of holding FLOW.
We are excited to be adding another feature in response to user feedback and requests.
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