Onramp Bitcoin Media · Oct 31, 2026 · 58m · 47m saved
With Himanshu Sahay, Co-Founder of Arch
Arch charged 16% on Bitcoin-backed loans two and a half years ago, and its retail loans now carry an interest rate of about 9%. Himanshu Sahay, co-founder of the Bitcoin lender Arch, told Cam Stromme on Onramp Bitcoin Media's First Principles series that the policy that kept Arch's early rates high is the one that now lets it charge less.
Celsius, BlockFi, Voyager, Nexo and FTX lent out the Bitcoin their clients pledged, and in 2022 they collapsed. Arch launched into that collapse and has never relent a client's collateral.
"There's a fine line between conviction and stupidity and I think we had a healthy amount of both." — Himanshu Sahay
Himanshu built the external ad network at Snapchat before starting Arch. The company has about 1,500 lifetime clients and nearly 1,000 active borrowers, and it has processed hundreds of millions of dollars of liquidations.
The full interview is covered here so you can skip it. 58 minutes of audio, 11 minutes of reading.
Here are the 12 lessons that matter.
Key Takeaways
Arch has never rehypothecated client Bitcoin, the practice behind the 2022 lender failures
Himanshu says the guardrails that make relending safe in traditional finance do not exist yet in Bitcoin
Each client's Bitcoin sits in its own address at Anchorage, which the borrower can check at any time
Proof of reserves is a snapshot of a pooled wallet, and Himanshu says it proves little
Arch lent at 16% two and a half years ago; its retail APR is now 10.49%
An unusually low advertised rate should prompt the question of what the lender does with client assets
Arch's collars reset every 30 days, which Himanshu says leaves more upside than a year-long collar capped near 40%
JPMorgan is the only big bank lending against Bitcoin, and the rest are a few years away
Spot Bitcoin holders and ETF holders are largely different people, and Schwab adding spot is the unlock Himanshu is watching
1. Bitcoin Had No Private Bank
Himanshu spent his early career as an engineer at Tinder, at the scooter company Bird and at Snapchat. Consumer apps at that scale taught him to build simple products people trust, which he says is still rare in Bitcoin.
He and his co-founder Dhruv Patel started Arch for wealthy Bitcoin holders they knew. Those holders had no version of the private-bank approach known as "buy, borrow, die": pledge assets, borrow against them for life and pass the assets to heirs with a stepped-up tax basis.
Bitcoin lending was a large business in 2021 and 2022, and every big player in it failed
"In Bitcoin, that didn't exist. And... 2021 and 2022, lending was actually a huge word. And there were a number of companies that were doing this. But for better or for worse, I actually think for the industry, they all failed in 2022. We started the company before all that happened." — Himanshu Sahay
Arch was founded before the failures and launched in the middle of them.
