BTCS Inc., a Nasdaq-listed company that holds most of its balance sheet in ether, has been selling ETH for less than it paid in order to keep a $64.1 million loan on Aave away from automatic liquidation. The disclosure, in a quarterly report filed on Thursday, comes as ether trades near $1,935, about 9% below the price BTCS used to value its collateral just four days earlier.
What BTCS disclosed about its Aave loan
As of Nov. 9, BTCS owed about $64.1 million on Aave, including accrued interest, according to its Form 10-Q. The debt, mostly USDT and Aave’s own GHO stablecoin, was backed by about 46,676 ETH, which the company valued at $99.3 million using an ether price of $2,127.
The filing is blunt about how BTCS has kept that position healthy. “Sales of ETH were executed at prices below their original cost basis as part of the Company’s active management of collateral levels and health factors associated with DeFi borrowing arrangements,” the company said. It did not say how much ether it sold for that purpose, and it did not split those sales out from other realized losses.
The wider numbers give a sense of scale. BTCS booked $30.6 million of realized losses on digital assets in the first nine months of 2026, partly from those sales and partly from accounting losses when ETH was moved into liquidity pools. Its direct ETH holdings fell from 70,787 at the end of 2025 to 49,571 at the end of September, with another 10,285 ETH sitting inside liquidity pool positions. The ether it still held directly had a cost basis of about $2,752 per coin.
The health factor at today’s ether price
Aave does not have a loan officer who calls a borrower. Each position has a health factor that compares the borrower’s collateral, discounted by a liquidation threshold, against the debt. Below 1.0, anyone can repay part of the loan and take collateral at a discount.
BTCS says Aave “generally” counts 80% of its ETH. On that basis, the Nov. 9 snapshot gave a health factor of about 1.24, and CoinDesk calculated a liquidation line near $1,717 per ether.
Ether has fallen since then. With ETH at about $1,935 on Coinbase on Friday, the same 46,676 coins are worth roughly $90.3 million. Assuming the debt and collateral are unchanged, the health factor drops to about 1.13 at an 80% threshold, and the liquidation price stays near $1,717, roughly 11% below the current price.
The picture is a little less tight using the live setting. The current on-chain configuration for wrapped ether on Aave’s main Ethereum market, which issues the aEthWETH tokens BTCS reports holding, shows an 84% liquidation threshold. On that number the health factor is about 1.18 and liquidation would start near $1,635, around 15% below today’s price. Either way, the cushion is thinner than it was when BTCS took its snapshot, and the company’s position may have changed since Nov. 9.
Little cash, and a board limit already behind it
BTCS had $463,250 in cash at the end of September and said a “significant majority” of its fair-value digital assets were deployed on Aave as collateral. It reported about $142.6 million of cash, stablecoins and liquid digital assets as of Nov. 9, against total debt of about $82.0 million, which also includes $17.9 million of convertible notes.
The company’s board allows Aave borrowing up to a 50% loan-to-value ratio at the time of borrowing, with temporary breaches of up to two days for operational reasons. At Friday’s price, the loan sits at roughly 71% of the collateral’s value. That does not break the policy, which applies when new debt is taken on, but it shows how far ether has moved against the position.
The loan also has no maturity date. It stays open until BTCS repays it or Aave’s contracts liquidate it. BTCS said it had not had any full or partial liquidation as of Nov. 11, and it pays variable rates of about 6.54% on its USDT debt and 4.5% on GHO.
A familiar squeeze for ether treasury firms
The quarter itself looked better on paper. BTCS reported third-quarter net income of $54.5 million, almost entirely from a $58.3 million unrealized gain as ether rose, but a $49.5 million net loss for the nine months. Its shares closed at $0.90 on Thursday, giving the company a market value of about $48 million based on 52.95 million shares outstanding, and it bought back stock at an average of $0.87 between Oct. 1 and Nov. 9.
BTCS is much smaller than Bitmine, whose annual report showed its ETH worth 27% less than it paid, but the pressure is the same. Aave’s own risk settings are also in flux, with LlamaRisk recently proposing to shed $1.33 billion of rsETH, osETH and LBTC collateral from the Core market. The figures to watch are the ether price against the $1,635 to $1,717 range and any further disclosure from BTCS on collateral moves or loan repayments.
FAQ
How big is the BTCS Aave loan?
About $64.1 million as of Nov. 9, including accrued interest, mostly borrowed in USDT and GHO and backed by about 46,676 ETH.
At what ether price could the loan be liquidated?
Using the 80% threshold BTCS cites, near $1,717. Using Aave’s current 84% setting for wrapped ether, near $1,635. Both assume the debt and collateral have not changed since Nov. 9.
Has BTCS been liquidated?
No. The company said it had not had any full or partial liquidation of its DeFi borrowings as of Nov. 11.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
