What’s New
Version 3.0
KEY ENHANCEMENTS
In order to provide a complete borrowing and investing experience involving banking money, Firefish is required to comply with standard KYC/AML regulations.
On top of that, Firefish aims to ensure security and prevention of fraudulent activities for both Borrowers and Investors in the P2P relationship, while safeguarding the integrity of the platform's transactions and operations.
The identity verification through a KYC process is required to ensure regulatory compliance and secure financial transactions. Our verification partner is Idenfy.
In order to request loans or invest through the Firefish platform, it is necessary to verify and upgrade your account to the ‘BASIC’ tier through the ‘My account’ menu.
The short verification (KYC) process consists of the following steps:
- Identity verification - this involves standard verification of your ID processed by our partner Idenfy. You will need to provide a valid ID and take a selfie using your device.
- Personal details confirmation - review and confirm your personal details, or request a correction if any of the details are incorrect.
- Phone verification - receive an SMS on your mobile phone and enter the provided code on the platform to complete the verification process.
- Questionnaire - complete a brief questionnaire required by KYC/AML regulations.
Once you successfully verify your account, you will have access to the full functionality of the platform.
The new ‘My Account’ menu displays your personal and banking details. These details will be utilized during the borrowing and/or investing process.
Your personal details will be captured from the profile verification process.
The bank account details for different currencies can be added in the ‘Your bank accounts’ section.
NOTE: For CZK, only Czech bank accounts with a local account number can be added. EUR accounts need to contain a valid IBAN number.
A specific per-user deal limit scheme is applied based on the following Account Tiers:
- ZERO - Default tier, no borrowing and lending available
- BASIC - EUR 15.000 or CZK 360.000 per transaction and EUR 30.000 in total, per user, for all active loans
The platform would not process deals above the set limits.
To upgrade to the BASIC tier, please go to ‘My Account / Account Tiers’ and select ‘Upgrade’.
We are working on introducing additional tiers with higher limits, as well as a tier for stablecoin deals.
An origination fee of 1.5% of the loan amount is applied to Borrowers.
This fee is automatically calculated and displayed as ‘Origination fee’ when submitting a loan request.
The fee is automatically deducted from the Bitcoin collateral during the collateral locking process phase.
Liquidation is a protective process designed to safeguard investors in two scenarios:
- Default - where the Borrower fails to repay their loan
- Price liquidation - triggered if the Bitcoin price falls to a ‘Liquidation price’ level set for each deal. The threshold for price liquidation is set at 95% of the loan-to-value (LTV) ratio, calculated as the notional amount plus interest, compared to the actual value of the Bitcoin collateral.
There are two types of liquidation methods available for Investors:
- Self-liquidation - Investors receive Bitcoin collateral to their designated liquidation address, which they set during the deal setup process.
- 🆕 Firefish liquidation - Firefish manages the collateral liquidation process on behalf of the Investors, and Investors receive their investment back in bank currency. Firefish receives the collateral only once the Investor is fully repaid. This mode allows Investors not to worry about handling cryptographic material, such as private keys or about interacting with exchanges.
❗️IMPORTANT:
- Firefish liquidation is set as the default option. If you prefer self-liquidation for each deal instead, please navigate to ‘My Account / Settings’ and enable the ‘Self-liquidation’ option. When confirming your investment you will be prompted to provide your Bitcoin liquidation address. Alternatively, you can switch back to Firefish liquidation when confirming the deal.
- It is possible to have different methods applied for individual deals. To select your preferred option, please toggle the ‘Self-Liquidation’ radio button in ‘Settings’.
- It is not possible to change the liquidation method for live deals and deals that are in or past the Bitcoin collateral locking process stage.
To create a new loan request, please navigate to the ‘Borrow’ menu, select the ‘Request a loan’ button and fill the loan request form with the loan amount, currency, loan period and preferred interest rate parameters.
The ‘Loan request summary’ provides details of the amount due, Bitcoin collateral information, as well as expected service and blockchain network fees.
Once you are matched with an investor, you will receive a notification and be guided through the Bitcoin collateral locking process.
You can access your active loans under the ‘My loans’ tab.
For Investors, there are two new methods of interacting with the platform:
- Loan Marketplace - displays all available deals that haven’t been matched with a particular investor. Investors can select any of the available deals and accept the opportunity.
- Watchdog - an email notification service that enables Investors to receive investment opportunities directly to their inbox. Watchdog allows Investors to customize their preferences for currencies, minimum and maximum loan amounts, interest rates, and loan periods.
Once the opportunity is accepted, the investor confirms the details, and the deal is then passed to the Borrower for them to lock their Bitcoin collateral.
Watchdogs can be created or deleted under ‘Invest / My Watchdogs’ menu.
You can access your active investments under the ‘My investments’ tab.
- Preferred Interest Rate - Borrowers have now the ability to set their preferred interest rate (p.a.) during the loan request process. We strongly recommend to check the ‘Recent Deals’ segment on the Home Page to see the most recent interest rates and to increase the probability of a match.
- Loan Tenors - a new, 18 months option is available when submitting a loan request.
- Recent Deals - the home screen provides a view of the latest deals and interest rates processed on the platform.
- Matching Algorithm - an improved algorithm is applied to increase the speed of and accuracy of matching borrowers with investors.
- UI & UX - various other user interface and user experience enhancements have been delivered.