Term Labs

What Term Labs does

Term Labs Inc. is a blockchain research and development company that builds Term Finance, a non-custodial fixed-rate, fixed-term lending protocol modeled on traditional tri-party repo arrangements. The protocol matches crypto-collateralized borrowers and lenders through weekly on-chain sealed-bid, single-shot double-auctions, with a proprietary clearing-price algorithm — formally verified and audited by Sigma Prime, Runtime Verification, Dedaub, and ChainLight — that determines a single market clearing rate per auction. The protocol is deployed across Ethereum, Avalanche, Base, Binance Smart Chain, and Plasma, uses Chainlink oracles for price feeds and liquidations, and issues ERC-20 Term Repo Tokens as composable receipt claims on repayment proceeds.

The product portfolio has expanded beyond the core auction mechanism to include Terminal 1 (an execution layer for managing fixed-term positions, integrating with Aave, Morpho, DEX aggregators, ERC4626 vaults, and Safe wallets), Blue Sheets (a simple-earn wrapper offering single-click fixed-rate access without auction participation), Term Strategy Vaults (curated fixed-rate lending strategies on Ethereum and Avalanche), and Term Points (a loyalty program). The company monetizes through a 0.5% annualized servicing fee charged upfront to borrowers at loan origination, plus a 0.25% annualized markup on Blue Sheets products.

Term Labs serves DeFi-native borrowers seeking predictable borrowing costs on crypto collateral and lenders seeking guaranteed fixed yields. The company is privately held and venture-backed by a syndicate that includes Electric Capital, Coinbase Ventures, Circle Ventures, a16z crypto, Robot Ventures, Maelstrom, and others. Founded in 2023 with a team of 1–10, the company has achieved a DeFi Safety score of 93% and has shipped approximately 15 product launches, audits, and chain expansions since mainnet launch in August 2023.

Name

Term Labs

Legal name

Term Labs Inc.

Website

https://term.finance

Company type

Private

Founded year

2023

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

Term Labs builds Term Finance, a non-custodial DeFi protocol that matches crypto-collateralized borrowers and lenders at fixed rates via weekly on-chain auctions, serving DeFi users seeking predictable borrowing costs and fixed yields.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

DeFi Lending Protocol

NAICS

Securities, Commodity Contracts, and Other Financial Investments and Related Activities (523)

SIC

Security & Commodity Brokers, Dealers, Exchanges & Services (6200)

akta.pro primary industry

Lending Protocol Infrastructure (Oracles, Rate Models, Vaults) (FSADAFAN)

akta.pro secondary industry

Pricing, Risk-Based Offer & Limit Management (FSAGAHAE)

Keywords

• DeFi fixed-rate lending
• On-chain lending auctions
• Crypto collateralized loans
• Decentralized finance protocol
• Fixed-term borrowing

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure, Operations

Revenue model

1. Servicing Fee: Term Labs charges a 0.5% annualized servicing fee on loans, collected upfront from borrowers at loan origination. This is the primary revenue stream.
2. Blue Sheets Markup: An additional 0.25% annualized mark-up on Blue Sheets products, providing supplementary revenue from specific loan offerings.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

Term Labs operates Term Finance, a decentralized non-custodial fixed-rate lending protocol on Ethereum that matches liquidity suppliers and takers through weekly on-chain sealed-bid auctions. Borrowers submit bids and lenders submit offers, and a proprietary clearing price algorithm determines a single market-clearing rate that maximizes total volume matched. Loans are fixed-rate and fixed-term, backed by ERC-20 collateral held in isolated smart contracts, with lenders receiving composable ERC-20 Term Repo Tokens as receipt instruments.

Product overview

Term Labs offers Term Finance, a decentralized noncustodial fixed-rate lending protocol on Ethereum. The core platform consists of the Term Finance Protocol that enables fixed-rate, fixed-term borrowing and lending through weekly on-chain auctions, with borrowers and lenders matched at a single market clearing rate. The portfolio includes Terminal 1 as the execution layer for position management, Term Repos as the loan products backed by ERC-20 collateral, and Term Repo Tokens as ERC-20 receipt tokens. Peripheral offerings include Blue Sheets (Simple-Earn) for simplified fixed-rate access without auction participation, Term Strategy Vaults for curated lending strategies on Ethereum and Avalanche, and Term Points for user engagement. The protocol integrates with Chainlink for price oracles, Aave and Morpho for execution routes, and DEX aggregators for swap liquidity.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Blue Sheets: Simple-Earn product providing on-demand, single-click access to fixed rates on-chain for users who don't participate in Term auctions directly.
• Terminal 1
• Term Strategy Vaults

Products and services

• Term Finance Protocol A noncustodial fixed-rate liquidity protocol modeled on tri-party repo arrangements in traditional finance. Matches liquidity suppliers and takers through weekly on-chain auctions where borrowers submit bids and lenders submit offers to determine a market clearing rate.
• Term Repos Fixed-rate, fixed-term loan products backed by ERC-20 collateral tokens. Collateral sits in isolated noncustodial smart contracts throughout the loan term, ineligible for rehypothecation.
• Term Auctions Sealed-bid, single-shot, double-auction mechanism (call-markets) where bids and offers are batched for matching and execution at pre-specified times. Determines the clearing rate that maximizes total volume matched between borrowers and lenders.
• Term Repo Tokens Composable ERC-20 receipt tokens representing a claim to repayment proceeds upon maturity. Lenders receive these tokens in exchange for funds and can burn them to redeem principal plus interest at maturity.
• Terminal 1 The execution layer for managing fixed-term positions on Term Finance. Bundles dependent actions into single atomic transaction routes with support for intents/limit orders, refinance, repay/loop-out, one-click rollover, and looping workflows.
• Blue Sheets (Simple-Earn) Simple-earn product making fixed-rates accessible to users who don't participate in Term auctions. Offers on-demand, single-click access to fixed rates on-chain with no minimums and no slippage.
• Term Strategy Vaults Curated vaults providing structured fixed-rate lending strategies. Available on Ethereum and expanded to Avalanche.
• Developer API and Documentation Comprehensive developer documentation including Solidity API references, protocol specifications, security audits, and deployed contract addresses across Ethereum, Avalanche, Base, Binance Smart Chain, and Plasma. Enables developers to integrate with the Term Finance protocol.

Quantifiable outcome

• DeFi Safety score of 93%

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration6 records

Feature3 records

Partnerships

Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.

• ChainlinkcoreTechnology or IntegrationChainlink provides decentralized price oracle feeds for the Term protocol, enabling reliable on-chain price data for loan pricing and liquidations.
• Sigma PrimecoreOthersSecurity auditing firm that conducted formal verification and security audit of Term Labs smart contracts.
• Runtime VerificationcoreOthersFormal verification company that audited Term Labs smart contracts for security vulnerabilities.
• DedaubminorOthersSecurity research and auditing firm that audited Term Labs smart contracts.
• ChainLightminorOthersBlockchain security firm that conducted security audit of Term Labs protocol.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• MakerDAO / Sky: MakerDAO (now Sky) is the largest DeFi credit platform issuing DAI through crypto-backed vaults. It is a broad incumbent in on-chain lending, though it focuses on stablecoin issuance rather than fixed-rate term loans; Spark Protocol (Maker's direct lending arm) is a more direct competitor to Term.

Others

• Circle: Circle is the issuer of USDC, the dominant stablecoin used across Term's lending markets, and Circle Ventures is a core-tier investor. Circle is not a direct competitor but is the most thematically related company given USDC's centrality to Term's fixed-rate loan denomination and settlement.
• Chainlink: Chainlink is the oracle infrastructure provider whose price feeds Term Labs integrates for liquidation monitoring and collateral valuation. It is a key technology partner (and core-tier relationship) rather than a competitor, but is comparable as a DeFi infrastructure company whose adoption reflects on Term's reliability.

Direct peers

• Morpho: Morpho is a DeFi lending protocol offering optimized lending rates through peer-to-peer matching on top of Aave-like pools. Like Term, it emphasizes better rate discovery for lenders/borrowers. Term's Terminal 1 explicitly integrates with Morpho for execution routes, making it both a competitor and integration partner.
• Aave: Aave is the largest DeFi lending protocol offering variable-rate, overcollateralized crypto-backed loans. It is a direct competitor to Term Labs' fixed-rate lending, though Aave operates a pooled variable-rate model vs. Term's auction-based fixed-term approach. Term's Terminal 1 explicitly integrates with Aave.
• Notional Finance: Notional is a DeFi fixed-rate, fixed-term lending protocol — the closest direct conceptual peer to Term Labs. Both offer predictable interest rates via on-chain mechanisms, though Notional uses a fCash AMM approach while Term uses sealed-bid double auctions. Highly comparable product category and target user.
• Pendle Finance: Pendle is a DeFi yield-trading protocol that enables fixed-yield exposure via PT/YT tokenization of yield-bearing assets. It overlaps with Term's fixed-rate lending value proposition and increasingly with structured products; Term's auctions have featured PT-SUSDE collateral, showing direct interaction between the two ecosystems.
• Compound: Compound is one of the original DeFi money markets offering variable-rate, algorithmically-set lending and borrowing. It is a direct competitor in the on-chain crypto-backed lending space where Term operates, though Compound uses continuous variable rates rather than Term's fixed-term auction model.

Emerging players

• Maple Finance: Maple is an institutional-focused DeFi credit platform offering fixed-term, fixed-rate loans to crypto-native institutions with underwriters evaluating borrowers. It is comparable to Term in the fixed-term credit niche but targets institutional/wholesale borrowers rather than Term's on-chain auction-based retail flow.
• Silo Finance: Silo is a DeFi lending protocol that isolates risk per asset in isolated money markets. It competes with Term in on-chain crypto-backed lending but uses a variable-rate, pool-based approach. It represents the broader DeFi lending landscape Term operates in.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/term_labs
• GitHubgithub.com/term-finance
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@TermFinance
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/term-labs-inc

Compliance9 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds3 records

Investors3 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Term Labs