BTCS Sells Ether at a Loss to Protect Aave Loan
BTCS had to sell ETH below its purchase price to protect its Aave position. That keeps the Nasdaq-listed company’s DeFi loan of more than $64 million out of danger.
Key Takeaways
- BTCS sold ether at a loss to keep an Aave loan of about $64.1 million healthy.
- The company had 46,676 ETH as collateral, worth about $99.3 million and with a collateral level of about 155%.
- If the price falls further, BTCS will need to add more ETH, pay down debt, or sell other assets to stay within the limit.
BTCS sold ether for less than the price the company had paid for it, in order to keep a loan of about $64.1 million (€57.8 million) on Aave healthy. The Nasdaq-listed company used ETH as collateral and tried to avoid letting the position get too close to liquidation.
Aave Position Under Pressure
In its quarterly report on Thursday, BTCS said the debt stood at about $64.1 million (€57.8 million) on November 9, including accrued interest. Against that, it held 46,676 ETH worth about $99.3 million (€89.6 million), based on an ether price of $2,127 (€1,920). That worked out to a collateral level of about 155% relative to the debt.
The company wrote that the ETH sale below its original cost was part of actively managing the collateral and the health factor around DeFi loans. BTCS did not say how much ether it sold or what portion of the realized losses came from that sale.
Aave runs fully automatically. If the health factor drops below 1, the protocol can sell part of the collateral to repay the loan. In practice, Aave counts ETH at about 80%, which put BTCS’s position at a health factor of around 1.24 based on calculations. Using the figures in the report, the liquidation line was around $1,717 (€1,550) per ether.
Why This Matters for Investors
For European crypto readers, this shows how quickly a large DeFi position can become vulnerable if ether’s price drops. In August 2026, Aave also introduced per-collateral liquidation caps to prevent large liquidations from hitting too hard all at once during a weaker market. That makes the technical side of DeFi loans more important for anyone watching treasury companies with a lot of ETH on the balance sheet. Ongoing ETF outflows also showed earlier how quickly sentiment around ether can weaken, even when underlying network activity stays strong.
From a Small Loan to a Million-Dollar Position
The loan grew fast. In April 2025, BTCS still reported an Aave loan of just $320,000 (€288,800) against 446 ETH. By August 2026, the debt had already climbed to $53 million (€47.8 million) against more than 46,500 ETH.
Since the start of 2025, the company has borrowed about $152.4 million (€138 million) in stablecoins, mostly in Tether's USDT and Aave's own dollar token GHO. About $89.4 million (€80.7 million) of that was repaid. BTCS also said that a large share of its digital assets is locked up as collateral on Aave, while it had only about $463,000 (€417,800) in cash at the end of September.
The board allows new Aave loans up to a loan-to-value ratio of 50%. If ether’s price falls further, BTCS will need to add more ETH, pay down debt, or sell other assets to stay within that limit.