Spout raises $2M to offer 0% interest loans on Solana

Spout Finance has raised $2 million in a strategic funding round to develop a Solana-based lending platform that would let investors borrow USDC against tokenized U.S. stocks without paying interest.

Spout announced on October 15 that the round attracted Draper Dragon, Anchorage Digital, Flow Traders, Taisu Ventures, Vessel Capital, Solayer, 2Square Capital, Bering Waters Ventures, and Blockstreet Capital, with strategic backing from Solana Labs. The company plans to use the funding to expand its development team and build lending infrastructure for tokenized securities.

The proposed service allows customers to pledge digital versions of U.S. stocks as collateral and borrow USDC at a fixed 50% loan-to-value ratio. Spout intends to fund lender returns through options premiums generated from the pledged shares, eliminating conventional interest charges for borrowers.

The platform remains in development, with its existing beta operating on Solana Devnet. Spout has not announced a public mainnet launch date, although it plans to introduce a private beta.

Spout plans 0% interest loans backed by tokenized stocks

Spout’s lending model allows investors to access cash without selling the shares they hold. Under the proposed arrangement, a customer deposits tokenized stocks as collateral and receives a USDC loan worth half the value of those assets.

For example, an investor pledging $10,000 worth of eligible tokenized shares could borrow $5,000 in USDC. The collateral remains pledged to the lending protocol while the loan is outstanding.

Unlike traditional margin lending, Spout does not plan to charge borrowers an annual interest rate. The company said borrowers could keep their loans open without accumulating interest, provided they continue meeting the platform’s lending requirements.

Marc Ryan, Spout’s co-founder and CEO, said the product was developed in response to differences between borrowing services available to wealthy clients and those offered to smaller investors.

“Borrowing against your own portfolio has always been a product for people who already had a private banker,” Ryan said. 

He argued that investors should have access to financing without meeting the minimum wealth requirements commonly associated with private banking.

The company compared its proposed service with U.S. brokerage margin loans. In its October announcement, Spout stated that Charles Schwab and Fidelity charged annual rates of 12.075% on margin balances below $25,000.

It placed private banking securities-backed lending rates between 4% and 6%, although those arrangements generally require customers to maintain substantial account balances or meet other eligibility conditions.

The figures were supplied by Spout and do not represent an independently verified comparison of all borrowing costs. The company’s announcement did not provide a complete schedule of liquidation terms, collateral management charges, or other potential borrower expenses.

Spout plans to pay lenders through stock options

Spout’s lending model relies on covered call options written against the shares deposited as collateral. The company plans to sell these options weekly and use the premiums collected to compensate lenders supplying USDC.

A covered call gives another market participant the right to buy an asset at a predetermined price within a specified period. In exchange for granting that right, the seller receives an upfront payment known as an option premium.

Spout intends to write options with exercise prices well above the current market value of the pledged shares. The strategy generates premium income while limiting potential gains on the underlying collateral if the stock rises beyond the option’s exercise price.

The company describes the arrangement as a way to finance borrowing costs through returns generated by the collateral. However, the premiums depend on options market conditions, and Spout has not disclosed a guaranteed lender yield.

Former Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman J. Christopher Giancarlo, an investor and regulatory adviser to the project, described the system as an alternative to traditional stock-backed lending.

“Spout covers its costs in a different way: by selling options contracts tied to the pledged shares,” Giancarlo said, explaining that the premiums would compensate lenders instead of interest payments from borrowers.

Draper Dragon partner Samiz Bayan focused on the potential uses of tokenized equities once they become available for lending. He said creating blockchain-based shares represents only one part of their development, with borrowing products providing another application for those assets.

The proposed system is part of a developing market for tokenized securities used as collateral. According to earlier coverage of tokenized stock deposits across DeFi lending platforms, Uniswap V4 held $59.1 million in tokenized stock deposits in September, while Kamino Lend followed with $41.7 million.

That market report placed Solana’s tokenized stock deposits at approximately $79.1 million, the largest amount among the blockchains included in the dataset.

Solana investors back Spout’s $2 million funding round

Spout’s strategic financing attracted companies involved in cryptocurrency custody, trading, venture capital, and blockchain infrastructure.

Draper Dragon participated alongside Anchorage Digital and Flow Traders, while Taisu Ventures, Vessel Capital, Solayer, 2Square Capital, Bering Waters Ventures, and Blockstreet Capital joined the round.

The project received strategic support from Solana Labs, although the announcement did not identify the value or structure of that support.

Individual investors included Solana co-founders Anatoly Yakovenko and Raj Gokal, former CFTC Chairman Giancarlo, Injective co-founder Eric Chen, Superstate co-founder Dean Swennumson, Perena founder Anna Yuan, and investor Paul Taylor.

Several other angel investors participated, including Shane Qiu, James Parillo, Stefano Glauser, Whales Lee, Steve Schoonebeek, and Riley Wild.

Spout named Saiprasad Raut, formerly a cryptocurrency technology adviser at Worldpay, as a product adviser. Neil Amhis, who previously worked at BNP Paribas and Natixis, serves as a quantitative strategy adviser.

The financing arrives as financial companies continue developing blockchain-based versions of traditional securities.

Earlier in October, Securitize introduced tokenized versions of 12 U.S. equities on Solana, including shares linked to Apple, Nvidia, and Tesla.

Securitize said its products are backed by underlying shares and available to eligible investors through regulated infrastructure. The launch introduced additional tokenized securities to Solana, although Spout has not announced an integration with those specific assets.

Spout prepares private beta before Solana mainnet launch

Spout currently operates a testing version of its lending application on Solana Devnet, a separate network developers use to test blockchain products before releasing them publicly.

The company plans to introduce private beta access but has not specified a launch date. Interested participants have been directed to contact the project through its official social media accounts.

Spout said the $2 million funding would support hiring and development of a credit system that other financial applications could integrate. Its proposed customers include tokenized asset issuers, cryptocurrency exchanges, and digital wallets seeking stock-backed lending services.

The team previously described a partnership with Stork to provide pricing data for tokenized assets. Accurate collateral valuations form part of the proposed borrowing infrastructure, particularly when stock prices change during market trading sessions.

Solana’s existing lending market includes institutional products such as Galaxy’s USDC and USDT vaults on Kamino, which launched in September with separate strategies for stablecoin lending.

Galaxy said its team would determine eligible lending markets, manage exposure limits, and monitor risks. The company did not offer a fixed or guaranteed return on those vaults.

For Spout, the next announced development is its private beta, followed by any subsequent mainnet deployment. The October 15 funding release did not specify the launch timetable, the amount of lending liquidity committed, or the date when live USDC borrowing would begin.