Bybit Institutional Loans provide institutional traders with collateralized loan services designed to improve capital efficiency. This article explains how Institutional Loans work, including borrowing, repayment, and risk management.

1. Overview

2. Borrowing, Disbursement & Repayment

3. Risk Management Calculation

4. Liquidation Process

Overview

Bybit Institutional Loans allow institutional traders to borrow against eligible collateral assets held in their Bybit accounts, enabling greater flexibility and more efficient capital utilization.

Currently, Institutional Loans support a minimum loan amount of 1,000,000 USDT with up to 5× leverage under the Unified Trading Account (UTA).

Advantages

1. Collateral assets are held within the user's UTA Main Account and UTA Standard Subaccounts.
2. As long as the loan-to-value (LTV) requirements are maintained, collateral assets can be traded in the Spot and Derivatives markets.
3. Multiple collateral assets are supported.
4. Institutional Loans offer competitive interest rates and borrowing limits. Please contact your Institutional Representative for the latest rates and details.
5. Leveraged interest-free loans may be available through selected promotions.

Product Categories

Institutional Loans offer three product categories based on trading strategies, each with its own risk control mechanism.

Note: Existing institutional products will remain under the Default category. To change the categories, please contact your dedicated Institutional Representative.

Trading Management

Borrowed funds under Institutional Loans are credited exclusively to the UTA associated with the primary UID within the relevant risk unit. Third-party custodian accounts and Custodial Trading Subaccounts are not supported.

Borrowed funds may be used for the following trading products:

OpenAPI

Bybit supports API access for querying product information, order details, and other related data. Please visit the API page to obtain API access. For any inquiries, please contact your Institutional Representative or email institutional_services@bybit.com. Currently, the Live Chat does not support Institutional Loans-related inquiries.

Borrowing, Disbursement & Repayment

Loan Application

Bybit Institutional Loans currently support up to 5× leverage, with a minimum loan amount of 1,000,000 USDT or the equivalent value in the borrowed asset.

For more information about application requirements, please contact your Institutional Representative or email institutional_services@bybit.com.

Collateral Assets

Collateral assets refer to the total USDT value of all eligible collateral assets held in your UTA, calculated based on the applicable collateral value ratio of each asset.

Refer to this page for the collateral value ratios for all supported margin assets under Institutional Loans in the UTA.

Note: If you place a Spot trade that converts Institutional Loans collateral assets in your UTA into non-collateral assets, or into collateral assets with a lower collateral value ratio, your risk ratio may increase. If the resulting risk ratio reaches or exceeds the liquidation threshold after the order is executed, liquidation may be triggered immediately upon order placement. Please manage your positions carefully to avoid liquidation risks and potential asset losses.

Disbursement

Loan disbursements are only supported for the primary UID within the relevant risk unit and can only be credited to a UTA.

Note: During loan disbursement, a portion of the borrowed funds will be retained as a reserve fund. The reserve fund will be transferred to the platform's system account and cannot be used for trading or withdrawals. This mechanism is designed to help mitigate negative balance risks under Institutional Loans.

Example

Assuming a user has collateral assets valued at 270,000 USDT, a reserve fund ratio of 2%, and uses 5× leverage, the user can borrow up to 1,000,000 USDT.

In this scenario:

1. 2% of the borrowed amount (20,000 USDT) will be retained as the reserve fund and transferred to the platform's system account.
2. The remaining 980,000 USDT (1,000,000 USDT − 20,000 USDT) will be credited to the user's UTA.
3. The user's total account equity will become equivalent to 1,250,000 USDT, consisting of:
4. 270,000 USDT in collateral assets
5. 980,000 USDT in usable borrowed funds
6. The user's current LTV ratio will be 80%.

Repayment Rules

Repayments are only supported for the primary UID within the risk unit and must be made from a UTA. Once the loan has been fully repaid, all reserve funds held in the platform's system account will be released back to the user's UTA.

The repayment date will be mutually agreed upon offline by both parties and specified in the agreement. The following repayment scenarios are supported:

1. Repayment at maturity: The loan is repaid on the due date.
2. Early repayment: The loan is repaid before the due date.

Risk Management Calculations

Risk Unit

1. A risk unit refers to a group of linked UIDs used for Institutional Loans risk management.
2. Within a set of Main Account and Subaccounts, different UIDs can be assigned to different risk units. However, each UID can only be linked to one risk unit.
3. A risk unit can contain multiple UIDs, provided that all linked UIDs belong to the same set of Main Account and Subaccounts.
4. Each risk unit must designate one UID within the group as the primary UID, which may be either a Main Account UID or a Subaccount UID.
5. All loans under a specified UID within the risk unit must be fully repaid before the UID can be unlinked from the risk unit.
6. Currently, linking UIDs to a risk unit is supported through OpenAPI. Please refer to the API documentation for more details.

Risk Rate (LTV)

The Initial Margin Rate (IMR) and Maintenance Margin Rate (MMR) under the UTA are assessed independently at the account UID level and operate separately from the Institutional Loans LTV system. The two risk management systems do not affect each other. For more information about UTA risk management, please refer to this page.

LTV calculation formula

LTV = Outstanding principal ÷ Total asset value of the risk unit

With:

Outstanding principal: The remaining unpaid principal balance of the loan, excluding any accrued interest.

Total asset value: The total USDT-equivalent value of all collateral assets within the risk unit.

Positive assets are calculated based on the applicable tiered collateral value ratio of each asset while negative assets are calculated directly using the market price without applying any collateral value ratio.

LTV Risk Thresholds and Restrictions

If the LTV of your account reaches the following thresholds, the system will apply the corresponding restrictions.

Note: These restrictions are supplementary risk control measures and do not guarantee complete protection against risk exposure. Users are responsible for monitoring and managing their account LTV levels and associated risks and should not rely solely on system restrictions as a safeguard.

Maintenance Margin Interception Rules

High-frequency CTA strategies involve frequent position openings, which may result in significant maintenance margin (MM) usage. To prevent MM usage from causing the LTV to exceed the position-opening restriction threshold (85%), the system dynamically calculates the maximum maintenance margin (Max MM) available for each user and applies corresponding risk controls.

If the maintenance margin required for an order exceeds the user's maximum available maintenance margin, the order will be rejected.

Formula

Risk unit's available MM = max [(Risk unit's total equity value in USD − Total account margin occupied − Total liabilities) ÷ 85%, 0]

Single-user Max MM = max [(Risk unit's total equity value in USD - Sum of other users' total account margin occupied in the unit − Total liabilities) ÷ 85%, 0]

Where:

1. Total account margin occupied = UTA MM + MM for pending Options orders under Cross Margin mode
2. Total liabilities = Principal + Accrued interest

When an order is placed, the system calculates the MM required for the order. If the required MM exceeds the user's maximum available MM, the order will be rejected.

Formula

LTV = Total liabilities ÷ (Risk unit's total equity value in USD − Total account margin occupied − Risk unit's available MM)

Note: The above restrictions are supplementary risk control measures and do not guarantee complete protection against risk exposure. Users are responsible for monitoring and managing their account risk levels and associated risks and should not rely solely on system restrictions as a safeguard.

Delta Risk Control Rules

The Delta risk control rules primarily apply to the Hedge/Delta product category. Delta measures the account's net unhedged directional exposure. A larger Delta value indicates greater directional exposure and higher market risk.

Account Delta reflects how changes in market prices may impact your overall account value, including whether the account is more exposed to potential gains or losses and the extent of that exposure.

Delta calculation

The system aggregates the positions of all users within the risk unit and calculates Delta based on the corresponding asset type and position direction.

Notes:

1. The following stablecoins and fiat currencies are excluded from Delta calculations: USDT, USDC, USDE, DAI, TRY, BRL, and USD.
2. Certain derivative or wrapped tokens will be mapped to their corresponding underlying assets. For example: METH → ETH, WBTC → BTC.

Formula

Account Delta = Σ(Coin Delta × Coin Ratio)

In simple terms, Account Delta represents the combined price impact across all assets in the account.

1. Coin Delta measures the directional exposure of a specific asset by comparing the net exposure against the larger directional exposure.
2. Coin Ratio represents the weight of a specific asset in the account and is calculated based on the asset's larger exposure value relative to the total account asset value.

Example

Assuming a user holds:

1. 5 BTCUSDT long positions
2. 3 BTCUSDT short positions
3. BTC price = 65,000 USDT
4. Total account value = 980,000 USDT

The delta calculation will be as follows:

1. Coin Delta = (5 − 3) ÷ max (3, 5) = 2 ÷ 5 = 0.4
2. Coin Ratio = (5 × 65,000) ÷ 980,000 ≈ 0.3316
3. BTC Delta = 0.4 × 0.3316 = 0.1326

Delta Quota Limits and Order Interception

The system applies Delta quota limits to each risk unit across the following two dimensions:

1. Single-coin Delta limit (maxCoinDelta): The maximum USD-equivalent net exposure allowed for a single asset.
2. Risk unit Delta limit (maxUnitDelta): The maximum USD-equivalent net exposure allowed across all assets within the risk unit.

When a new order is placed, the system evaluates its impact on Delta in real time. If the order causes either the single-coin Delta limit or the risk unit Delta limit to be exceeded, the order will be rejected.

Notes:

1. Existing historical orders and positions are not subject to retroactive recalculation. Delta checks apply only to newly placed orders.
2. Isolated Margin Mode is excluded from Delta calculations.
3. Under Cross Margin mode, Expiry reduce-only orders are treated as risk-reducing orders and are therefore excluded from Delta calculations. However, not all reduce-only orders are exempt from Delta checks. Certain reduce-only trades may still trigger Delta restrictions, particularly when reducing hedged positions increases the account's net Delta exposure, or when asymmetric long and short position reductions result in greater directional exposure. In such cases, the order may still be rejected.
4. Users are advised to manage hedge ratios carefully and avoid one-sided position reductions when approaching Delta limits. If position restructuring is required, consider adjusting long and short positions simultaneously to maintain a balanced hedge ratio. If necessary, please contact your Institutional Representative to discuss temporary Delta limit adjustments.

Note: The above restrictions are supplementary risk control measures and do not guarantee complete protection against risk exposure. Users are responsible for monitoring and managing their account risk levels and associated risks and should not rely solely on system restrictions as a safeguard.

Liquidation Process

When the account's LTV reaches or exceeds 90%, the system will trigger the liquidation process to reduce account risk. Repayment and liquidation actions will be executed in the following order:

1. Cancellation of open orders

All unfilled open orders will be canceled to release occupied margin.

2. Same-asset repayment

Available assets in the account will first be used for repayment without asset conversion.

3. Convertible asset repayment

If the available assets are insufficient for repayment, the system will convert transferable assets and use the converted assets for repayment. A 2% conversion fee will be charged during the conversion process.

Example:

Assuming the user needs to repay 200,000 USDT and holds 3 BTC, with BTC priced at 60,000 USDT:

1. Conversion fee: 0.06 BTC (3 BTC × 2%)
2. Remaining convertible amount: 2.94 BTC
3. Converted value: 176,400 USDT (2.94 × 60,000)
4. Remaining repayment amount: 23,600 USDT (200,000 − 176,400)

4. Repayment until IMR returns to 100%

Margin assets with a positive balance in the UTA will be transferred for repayment until the IMR returns to 100%.

5. Repayment until MMR returns to 100%

Margin assets with a positive balance in the UTA will be transferred for repayment until the MMR returns to 100%.

6. Reserve fund repayment

The system will use the 2% reserve fund retained during loan disbursement for repayment.

7. Liquidation settlement

If the losses still cannot be fully covered, all UIDs within the risk unit will enter the liquidation process. A liquidation settlement fee will be charged during this process, calculated as follows:

Liquidation settlement fee = Liquidated asset amount × 2%

Note: Institutional Loans liquidation and UTA liquidation are independent risk control mechanisms. If both liquidation processes are triggered simultaneously, the following rules will apply:

1. If the UTA is already undergoing liquidation when Institutional Loans liquidation is triggered, Institutional Loans liquidation will skip the affected UID and will not be executed for that UID.
2. Institutional Loans liquidation does not affect the liquidation rules of the UTA. For example, the delayed liquidation mechanism for Options under the UTA will continue to operate normally; however, this mechanism does not apply to Institutional Loans liquidation.
3. If Institutional Loans liquidation is already in progress when the UTA simultaneously triggers liquidation, the system will complete the Institutional Loans liquidation first before processing the UTA liquidation.

For any inquiries, please contact your Institutional Representative or email institutional_services@bybit.com. Currently, the Live Chat does not support Institutional Loans-related inquiries.