Episode October 31, 2026 58 min 12s

Why His Bitcoin Lender Survived the 2022 Crash

From Onramp Bitcoin Media Onramp Bitcoin

Wealthy families have always borrowed against their assets instead of selling them, and Bitcoin holders spent years without a safe way to do the same. Cam Stromme sits down with Himanshu Sahay, co-founder of Arch, on how a Bitcoin-backed loan should work and what to demand from any lender.

Guest: Himanshu Sahay, co-founder of Arch, a Bitcoin-backed lender.

X: https://x.com/hhsahay

Arch: https://archlending.com/

Arch on X: https://x.com/ArchLending

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ABOUT THIS EPISODE

Himanshu Sahay built consumer apps at Tinder, Bird and Snap before co-founding Arch with Dhruv Patel, and he launched it as the last generation of crypto lenders collapsed. He tells Cam why Bitcoin holders deserve the same buy, borrow, die playbook private banks offer their clients, and what Arch decided to do differently from day one: no rehypothecation, client collateral held at a qualified custodian in segregated addresses borrowers can check themselves, and state lending licenses. They get into who borrows against Bitcoin and why, how margin calls are handled when the price drops on a Friday night, where the dollars behind a loan come from, and what an interest rate that looks too good is telling you. Himanshu also walks through collars that remove margin call risk, a loan built to accumulate more Bitcoin, and why most banks are still years away from lending against it. Onramp has partnered with Arch for nearly two years.

CHAPTERS

00:00 - Himanshu Sahay and Arch

01:12 - From Tinder, Bird and Snap to Bitcoin

04:09 - Buy, borrow, die for Bitcoin holders

06:27 - Starting a Bitcoin lender in the 2022 collapse

08:08 - Why Arch never rehypothecates collateral

12:20 - Segregated custody you can verify

16:13 - State lending licenses and the BitLicense

20:17 - Who borrows against Bitcoin, and why

22:56 - Getting a Bitcoin-backed loan in minutes

24:54 - Margin calls, price wicks and safeguards

31:11 - Loan to value, APR and deferred interest

33:09 - Where the lending dollars come from

38:02 - Upsizing and rolling over a loan

39:39 - Collars, no margin calls and the Bitcoin accumulator

44:23 - When banks start lending against Bitcoin

48:59 - Borrowing against spot Bitcoin vs ETFs

52:12 - The financialization of Bitcoin

54:53 - Be curious, and be conservative

ABOUT THE SHOW

First Principles is Onramp Media's show on building and protecting Bitcoin wealth for the long term, hosted by Cam Stromme, Head of Private Wealth at Onramp. Join Cam's conversations with the people building Bitcoin's financial services on how they manage their own Bitcoin, how they weigh risk and tradeoffs, and what they see coming next.