> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.gage.cash/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.gage.cash/earn/partner-vaults.md). # Partner vaults Lend USDG or a stock token through a vault a partner runs: fixed-cost loans, a fee only on each loan's return, withdrawals paid at once up to free cash. A partner vault is a pooled lender run by one of gage's partners. You deposit the asset it lends, USDG or a stock token such as NVDA, and receive shares. The vault funds fixed-cost loans to people who pledge tokens as collateral, and every share earns its part of each loan's return as the loan runs. Earn lists every partner vault as a card; the card opens the vault's page, where **Deposit** takes your asset. Each vault's page has a short link made from the name the vault was created with, such as `gage.cash/v/silicon`. The first vault to take a name keeps it; a later vault with the same name gets the first characters of its address (`silicon-4f2a`). A rename never changes the link. What makes a partner vault worth a deposit: * **Each loan's cost is fixed the moment it starts.** The borrower agrees the cost up front for the whole term, and the vault knows its return before it lends. * [**No liquidation**](/start-here/no-liquidation.md)**:** nothing can touch a borrower's collateral before the end of the loan, whatever its price does; at the end the borrower chooses to repay or walk away. A walk-away hands the vault the collateral instead of the repayment. * **The manager is paid only from returns.** The performance fee is a cut of each repaid loan's return, between 5% and 15%, fixed when the vault is created. It is never charged on your deposit, on a walk-away, or on rewards. * **Withdrawals are paid at once**, up to the vault's free cash, with no queue. A paused vault still pays withdrawals. * **USDG vaults pass on sGAGE rewards** the loans pay, with no fee taken from them. You may end up holding the collateral instead of the asset you lent. For a loan against a meme: Memes can go to zero. If the borrower walks away, you hold it. ## What a vault lends, and against what Each vault lends one asset. USDG vaults lend against the tokens admitted on the USDG loan engine, for terms of 7 or 21 days. Stock-token vaults (GLD, NVDA and HIMS today) each have their own loan engine and lend against the collateral admitted for that asset, for 7 or 21 days. A loan is repaid in the asset it was lent in. The manager writes the vault's rules, its mandate, and the vault's page shows them: | Rule | What it does | Can it change? | | ---------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Tokens | The collateral the vault lends against, within one universe: stocks and commodities, or memes and Robinhood-ecosystem tokens. | Adding a token waits three hours; removing one applies at once. The universe is fixed. | | Longest term | No loan runs longer. | Fixed at creation. | | Loan grade floor | The vault funds only loans whose fixed cost meets this [Loan grade](/start-here/ratings.md) or better. | Tighter at once; looser after three hours. | | Most per loan | The largest amount the vault puts into one loan. | Tighter at once; looser after three hours. | | Most per token | The largest share of deposits lent against one token. | Tighter at once; looser after three hours. | | Buffer | A share of deposits kept out of loans. | Tighter at once; looser after three hours. | | Performance fee | The manager's cut of each loan's return, 5% to 15%. | Fixed at creation. | A loosened rule takes effect only once its three hours have passed, and anyone may then activate it; the manager can withdraw it before then. A rule change never touches a loan already funded. There is no deposit cap. The minimum deposit is one whole unit of the asset: 1 USDG, or 1 NVDA. ## How loans are funded A borrower's listing is filled whole, in one transaction, by one or more partner vaults whose rules it meets, each taking one to four of the loan's quarters. If any part cannot be funded, nothing is. Only the protocol's fill router can fund a loan for a vault, and only while the manager keeps funding open. Each fill pays an execution fee to the protocol: at most the vault's execution cap, a share of that loan's return, and never so much that the return falls under the vault's Loan grade floor. It leaves the share price when the loan is funded and comes back if the listing is cancelled before the loan starts. A vault holds at most 64 loan records at once, settled ones still owed rewards included. ## How the share price moves Your shares are priced once for everyone: the vault's assets divided by its shares. The price counts: | Counted | How | | ------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Cash | The asset the vault holds. | | Reserve | USDG vaults keep idle cash in the Steakhouse USDG reserve on Morpho; its value can rise or fall. Stock-token vaults keep idle assets as cash. | | Loans | Each open loan at the principal lent plus its return after fees, spread evenly from the moment the loan starts to its end. | A deposit or withdrawal pays or receives the return accrued to that second, so arriving just before a repayment captures nothing. Not counted: collateral recovered from a walk-away, sGAGE rewards, and the part of an early repayment above what the price had counted. Each is a separate claim, below. ## Fees The manager's fee is charged when a repayment or sale is booked, on the loan's return after its execution fee. 10% of that fee is the protocol's; the rest goes to the manager's fee recipient. Anyone can pay the fees out to both; they are held apart from depositors' assets until then. A worked example: a vault lends 1,000 USDG for 7 days at a fixed cost of 50 USDG. The fill's execution fee is 5 USDG, and the vault's fee is 10%. * The return after the execution fee is 45 USDG; the fee on it is 4.50 USDG, of which 0.45 USDG is the protocol's and 4.05 USDG the manager's. * Depositors earn 40.50 USDG over the 7 days, accrued into the share price. The figures apply only if the borrower repays. A walk-away pays no fee. ## When a loan ends Anyone can book a loan's outcome with **settle**. Loans run with no grace period. * **Repaid.** The repayment comes back as cash. The part of the return the share price had already counted stays in the vault; anything above it, from a repayment before the end of the term, becomes an earnings claim shared by the shares exposed to that loan while it ran, by their loan-days. Someone who deposits after the repayment has no part of it. * **Walked away.** At the end of its term the loan is written off and leaves the share price. The holders at that moment receive the collateral in kind, in proportion to their shares: anyone can move it into the vault's recovery pocket with **recover**, and each holder claims their part from the vault's page or Portfolio. The right survives a later withdrawal. While the earliest loan past its end waits to be settled, deposits, withdrawals and new loans wait too. Settling it, which anyone can do, opens them again. ## Withdraw A withdrawal is paid at once, from cash and then the reserve, up to the vault's free cash. A request larger than that does not go through; there is no queue, and what is out in loans comes back as they end. Free cash can be zero while everything is lent. The last holder cannot leave while any loan is open. Claims sit outside your shares and outlive them: recovered collateral, earnings from early repayments and, in USDG vaults, sGAGE rewards. Claim each from the vault's page, or all of them on Portfolio, with the vault's **Claim** or **Collect all**, before or after you withdraw. ## What the manager can and cannot do The manager is the partner who created the vault. Creation is not open: the factory's owner admits each creator. The manager can: * change the rules above, tighter at once and looser after three hours; * pause the vault, which stops deposits, reserve investment and new loans, never withdrawals, claims or settlement; * open or close funding, and set the execution cap and its own fee recipient; * offer the vault's part of a loan for sale, at no less than its principal, the return it has earned, and half of the return still to come. The manager cannot withdraw depositors' assets, change the fee or the longest term after creation, change a funded loan, or stop a withdrawal. ## Risks * **Collateral in kind.** A walk-away pays in the collateral, which can be worth less than the loan, or nothing. Memes can go to zero. * **Free cash can be zero.** A withdrawal waits for loans to end or for new deposits. * **A late settlement pauses the vault** until anyone books it. * **The manager decides what the vault funds**, within its rules and the contracts' bounds. A loosened rule waits three hours before it can apply, and the wait is public on chain. * **Contracts.** A fault in the vault, its loan engine or the reserve can lose funds. The [contract directory](/protocol/addresses.md) lists them. --- # Agent Instructions This documentation is published with GitBook. GitBook is the documentation platform designed so that both humans and AI agents can read, navigate, and reason over technical content effectively. Learn more at gitbook.com. ## Querying This Documentation If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation by asking a question. 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