Crypto-native prime broker Project 0 allows users to borrow against DeFi portfolios for real-world expenses

DeFi native prime broker Project 0 is launching Project 0 Pay, offering a way for users to pay off their credit cards using their crypto investment portfolio liquidity without having to sell their assets or interrupt yield generation. 

In short, the new feature essentially tracks a user’s spending to provide a month-end statement and calculate a borrow transaction against their portfolio, which, if approved, will cover the period's expenses without needing to liquidate their holdings. 

Pay will allow users to connect their credit cards and bank accounts directly to the Project 0 interface, allowing for borrowed USDC to be automatically off-ramped into their fiat accounts. Users can repay the USDC loan “whenever they choose,” the statement notes.

"With Project 0 Pay, you no longer need to keep idle cash off-chain to pay bills. Your DeFi portfolio can start to function more like a bank account, allowing you to stay long, earn yield, and still finance your daily expenses quickly and efficiently,” Project 0 founder MacBrennan Peet said. 

The new feature can also be customized to give users control over what expenses to cover using their onchain funds. 

Similar to the traditional financial system, crypto prime brokers provide comprehensive financial services to sophisticated clients. Project 0 often calls itself the first DeFi-native, permissionless, trustless prime broker centered around Solana. 

The startup uses nascent onchain features like unified margin and credit to allow users to treat their entire “multi-venue” DeFi portfolios as a single collateral base for borrowing. Project 0 Pay mirrors offerings by some traditional prime brokers that provide leverage and financing for clients who need liquidity but want to keep their portfolios intact. 

"We founded Project 0 to bring the first prime brokerage to DeFi, but we quickly realized the infrastructure we've built could enable something broader: using your DeFi portfolio to fund your day-to-day life," said Peet.