How Teller works

Teller has been a lending protocol since 2019. Teller Pro is the consumer app built on top of it. Connect a wallet (and, optionally, exchange and bank accounts), and Teller reads the portfolio to do two things: surface pre-selected loan offers from a network of real lenders, and let a borrower take a protocol-native loan in USDC directly against their holdings.

Two borrowing paths run side by side. A no-collateral path that matches the borrower to licensed lenders, and an asset-backed path that borrows against crypto or tokenized stocks with no margin calls. On top of both sits the Teller Score, which is what unlocks no-collateral borrowing.

Instead of applying to lenders one at a time and collecting rejections, a borrower fills out one short pre-qualification. Teller checks those answers, plus wallet signals, against no-collateral eligibility rules and tells the borrower whether they pre-qualify, with their details pre-filled. Nothing here triggers a hard credit pull, and nothing is pledged. Pre-qualifying is not approval.

The flow takes about four minutes and asks for:

1. 1Where you live. Country, then US state. The single biggest filter, because no-collateral lending is licensed per jurisdiction.
2. 2Loan type and amount. Checked against the eligibility rules for that loan type.
3. 3Employment and income. Self-reported first, the primary input unsecured lending is priced against.
4. 4Rough credit tier. An honest answer improves the accuracy of the check.
5. 5Contact and date of birth. Used for age eligibility and to pre-fill a later application.

The eligibility check covers country and US state, age and residency, minimum income, and loan-type intent. Loan types include personal loans, debt consolidation, business loans, HELOCs, mortgages and home purchase, auto purchase and auto refinance, and student refinancing. If the borrower pre-qualifies, their answers are already filled in, so a later application is a click rather than a re-type.

For the full walkthrough, see the guide: how Teller pre-qualification works.

No-collateral loans pledge nothing. There are two ways they show up in Teller. The first is the pre-qualification path above: a check on whether the borrower pre-qualifies for a loan that a partner lender would underwrite and disburse to a bank account. The second is a protocol-native unsecured loan issued on Teller's own books against the borrower's Teller Score.

The score-backed unsecured loan is a 0%, 30-day USDC loan. It is gated so that the limit can never run ahead of the trust a wallet has earned. Three checks have to pass:

1. 1Identity verified. A completed KYC check (Self zk-passport or equivalent).
2. 2Limit within score. The requested amount cannot exceed the wallet's Teller Score.
3. 3No active Teller loan. There is no open Teller loan on the borrowing chain.

An asset-backed loan borrows USDC against an asset the borrower already holds: major crypto like Bitcoin and Ethereum, and tokenized stocks like TSLA, with more added over time. The borrower keeps ownership and keeps the upside, and never triggers a taxable sale to raise cash.

How the borrow flow works

The Borrow sheet is one screen:

1. 1Pick collateral. Choose a supported token and an amount. Native ETH is wrapped to WETH for the transaction and returned as WETH on repayment, ready to unwrap back to ETH.
2. 2Choose what to borrow. Borrow USDC against the collateral, up to the loan's max.
3. 3Review the terms. The sheet shows APR, loan-to-value (LTV), the roll window (30 days), the protocol fee (0.05%), the rollover date, and total due.
4. 4Confirm. Sign the transaction. The loan opens on-chain and shows up in the portfolio.

Why there are no margin calls

Most crypto-backed loans are liquidation-based: a price line is drawn above the loan, and the moment the collateral dips past it, the position is sold automatically, often at the worst possible time. Teller loans are different. The terms are fixed for the loan's action window, so a temporary drawdown in the collateral's price does not force a sale mid-term. There is no margin call and no surprise liquidation while the loan is current.

Rollover and repayment

A loan stays healthy as long as it is rolled over or repaid by its action date. Rolling over (extending) restarts the window and keeps the collateral in place, which is how borrowers hold a position open across many cycles without ever being liquidated on a dip. Repaying the USDC plus interest releases the collateral back to the wallet.

More detail on extending a position lives in the protocol docs: Extend your loan.

Swap converts one token into another, across chains, at the best available on-chain route. It is built on LI.FI, so a single swap can bridge and trade in one step, settling into whatever token the borrower needs (for example, USDC to repay a loan, or collateral to open one).

Swapping is also the fastest way to build a Teller Score. Every confirmed swap is recorded and credits the Swap category (see below). A small protocol fee (1%) is applied to swap volume and is what funds the score program.

The Teller Score is a 0 to 1000 reputation score for a wallet. Its job is simple: it is the no-collateral borrowing limit. A wallet with a score of 600 can take up to 600 in protocol-native unsecured USDC (subject to the KYC and active-loan checks above). The score is built from six categories, each capped, that add up to 1000.

Teller runs everywhere the portfolio already lives. The same account works across every surface:

• Web

  pro.teller.org in any browser.

• iPhone / Android

  Install as a home-screen app (PWA) for a native feel and reminders.

• Telegram

  Open the Teller Mini App inside Telegram.

• Farcaster

  Launch the Teller Mini App inside a Farcaster client.