# ikigii, Towerbank's Panama-licensed banking app, lets you borrow dollars or stablecoins against Bitcoin at a 50% loan-to-value with a margin call at 65%, so the liquidity arrives without selling the coins > ikigii is Towerbank's SBP-supervised Panama app: borrow USD or stables against BTC at 50% LTV, margin call at 65%, dollar account, Visa debit, and bank custody instead of an offshore desk. - **Source:** https://ptycoin.com/en/posts/2026-09-11-ikigii-towerbank-btc-loans/ - **Published:** 2026-09-11 - **Category:** Projects - **Author:** Valentina - **Tags:** panama, bitcoin, banks, fintech, latam, stablecoins - **Also published in:** [Español](https://ptycoin.com/es/posts/2026-09-11-ikigii-towerbank-btc-loans/) --- Gabriel Campa, Head of Digital Assets at [Towerbank International Inc.](https://www.towerbank.com/en/), spent years wiring Bitcoin into a bank that already had a Superintendencia de Bancos de Panamá licence and more than fifty years of ordinary deposit business. The product that came out of that work is [ikigii](https://www.ikigii.com/): one app with a dollar account and crypto balances (BTC, ETH, USDT, USDC) in the client's name, and a loan desk that pays out dollars or stablecoins against Bitcoin left as collateral. Towerbank's own site frames the platform as "respaldada por Towerbank International Inc., banco con licencia regulado por la Superintendencia de Bancos de Panamá," with services offered from Panama under Panamanian financial law. ## What the loan actually does On the [préstamos page](https://www.ikigii.com/prestamos) and the [FAQ](https://www.ikigii.com/preguntas-frecuentes), the terms are concrete enough to map without a brochure rewrite: - **Collateral:** Bitcoin only. - **Payout:** U.S. dollars, or USDT / USDC. - **Loan-to-value (LTV):** up to **50%** of the BTC's value (a 2-to-1 overcollateralization). Borrow $1,000 and the app wants roughly $2,000 of BTC locked. - **Size:** **$1,000** minimum, **$250,000** maximum through the standard path; larger tickets go through `soporte@ikigii.com`. - **Term:** one year, renewable annually after bank evaluation. Principal can be repaid any time with **no prepayment penalty**. - **Interest:** nominal **10%** if you pay interest upfront, monthly, or quarterly (FAQ quotes an effective **11.14%** on those paths); nominal **11%** if interest and principal both wait until maturity (effective **12.15%**). An issuance discount is taken once at disbursement and is not recharged on renewal. - **Speed:** approval and payout are marketed as immediate once the BTC collateral is already inside ikigii. The calculator on the loans page makes the 2-to-1 ratio visible before you tap solicit. That is the product: liquidity without a market sell of the coins you still want exposure to. ## Margin calls and who holds the coins Volatility is the whole credit problem. ikigii's FAQ says a **margin call** fires when LTV reaches **65%**: deposit more BTC or repay part of the loan until LTV is back under the **50%** limit. Secondary coverage in [Revista Mercado](https://mercado.com.ar/finanzas/ikigii-suma-prestamos-en-dolares-con-garantia-en-bitcoin-y-tasa-fija-anual) (March 2026) described earlier warning bands at 55% and 60% before that 65% call; treat those intermediate alerts as reported by the outlet, and treat the 65% / restore-to-50% pair as first-party FAQ language. Towerbank's site footer is blunt about the endgame: if collateral value falls and the agreed LTV is breached, "Ikigii se reserva el derecho de liquidar total o parcialmente los BTC en custodia para cubrir el saldo del préstamo, conforme a lo establecido en el contrato." The FAQ's softer line ("Tus BTC siguen siendo tuyos, pero quedarán bloqueados") sits next to that liquidation right. This is **bank custody**, not self-custody. The coins leave your wallet and sit with the platform while the loan is open. In a [March 2026 interview with Frecuencia Money](https://noticias.mobilemoneylatam.com/entrevista-gabriel-campa-de-towerbank/), Campa put the design choice in banking language: a 50% LTV as "el estándar de máxima prudencia bancaria," with a team monitoring collateral around the clock. Johan Hernández, Digital Assets Business Lead, told Revista Mercado the business is not built around liquidating guarantees. Marketing tone is one thing; the contract language that allows partial or full liquidation is what a borrower should read twice. ## The rest of the app around the loan The loan is the sharp edge; the surrounding product is a Panama-dollar bank account wearing a crypto UI. Per the [FAQ](https://www.ikigii.com/preguntas-frecuentes): - Buy, sell, send, and receive **BTC, ETH, USDT, and USDC** (ETH/USDT/USDC on ERC-20; BTC on Bitcoin). - Convert between dollars and crypto inside the app. - Local and international dollar transfers through Towerbank rails. - A Visa debit card (FAQ: **$26.75** annual fee, plus a monthly fraud-insurance line) with free ATM withdrawals in Panama. - A savings pocket marketed at **4%** annual interest from a **$1,000** minimum. - Crypto buy/sell spread listed at **2%** each way; no app maintenance fee; **$100** (or crypto equivalent) to activate. Availability is listed for Panama plus several LatAm app-store markets (Bolivia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras among them on the FAQ; Towerbank's marketing pages have floated a wider download list). Functionality "puede variar según el país de residencia," and the footer says the site is not an offer where the service is unauthorized. Non-Panamanians can open accounts; nationality is not the gate the FAQ describes. ## Why a licensed bank changes the comparison set Most Bitcoin-backed credit in LatAm still comes from offshore desks, DeFi protocols, or lightly supervised fintechs. ikigii's pitch is that the lender is Towerbank: a Panama bank under SBP supervision, with the loan living next to ACH, SWIFT-style wires, and a debit card. That does **not** make the loan risk-free. It changes *which* risks you are buying: - **Platform and custody risk** move inside a licensed bank rather than an anonymous smart-contract or a Caribbean SPV. - **Liquidation risk** remains: a sharp BTC drawdown can still force a sale of your collateral under the contract. - **Interest and opportunity cost** are explicit (10–11% nominal paths above). - **Jurisdiction:** products are offered from Panama under Panamanian rules. Readers who followed our [Panama Fintech Law 314](/en/posts/2026-06-11-panama-fintech-law-314-vasp-framework/) map already know the country's VASP story is unfinished; Towerbank's bank licence is a separate object from a VASP registration, and ikigii leans on the former. Podcast and conference chatter has floated traction figures (loan book size, "zero liquidations"). Those are useful as directional color when attributed to speakers; they are not audited disclosures. Prefer the FAQ rates, the LTV bands, and the footer liquidation clause for anything you can pin down without a data room. ## Limits worth reading before you fund collateral **This is not self-custody.** If your threat model needs keys you control, locking BTC into ikigii for a loan is the wrong tool. If your job is "keep BTC exposure, need dollars this week, prefer a supervised bank over an offshore desk," it is one of the few Panama-shaped answers on the market. **Margin math is unforgiving in a crash.** Starting at 50% LTV with a call at 65% leaves less room than many DeFi borrowers are used to seeing advertised at 70-80% LTV, which is the point of the bank's conservatism, and also why a fast drop still hurts. **Fees stack outside the interest line.** Issuance discount, the 2% crypto spread if you are moving in and out of BTC inside the app, debit-card annual and insurance charges, and ordinary banking transfer costs all sit beside the headline 10%. **Availability and approval are gated.** Loans are "sujetos a aprobación." Country of residence can change which features show up. El Salvador licensing talk in early 2026 was process news, not a finished passport stamp, so check the live app store and FAQ for your market. ## Takeaway ikigii is Towerbank shipping a familiar cypherpunk desire (dollars without selling the coins) through a Panama bank account instead of an offshore lending desk. The concrete stack is SBP-supervised Towerbank custody, BTC-only collateral, 50% LTV, 65% margin call, one-year renewable terms, 10-11% nominal interest paths, and a surrounding dollar+crypto app with debit card and local rails. For readers comparing after [Bull Bitcoin](/en/posts/2026-08-21-bull-bitcoin-mobile-wallet/) (self-custody-first) or [Littio](/en/posts/2026-09-04-littio-colombia-dollar-neobank/) (mandatario dollar neobank), start with who holds the keys and what happens at 65% LTV, then price your real need (liquidity size, holding period, tax lot) against selling spot or borrowing elsewhere. Read the live FAQ and the contract before treating any rate table in this piece as current. This is a product map, not a recommendation to borrow against your Bitcoin. --- ## Keep reading - [Littio, Bogotá's YC W23 dollar neobank, issues US ACH and EU IBAN details settled in USDC and EURC, a Mastercard for spend, and Bóvedas advertising up to 9.8% E.A., while Selenio S.A.S. operates as a mandatario outside Superfinanciera supervision](https://ptycoin.com/en/posts/2026-09-04-littio-colombia-dollar-neobank/index.md): Littio is Bogotá's YC W23 dollar neobank: US ACH and EU IBAN rails on USDC/EURC, a Mastercard, and Bóvedas up to 9.8% E.A., run by Selenio as a mandatario, not a bank. - [OranjeBTC's DIGY11 packages Strategy's STRC and Strive's SATA preferreds into a B3 monthly-income ETF in reais, with FX hedging and a CDI+3–5 target that has not paid a first coupon yet](https://ptycoin.com/en/posts/2026-08-28-oranjebtc-digy11-b3-income-etf/index.md): DIGY11 is OranjeBTC's first non-treasury product: a B3 ETF of bitcoin-treasury preferreds (STRC/SATA), monthly reais distributions, FX hedge, and a waitlist ahead of a planned September debut. - [Bull Bitcoin: privacy-first self-custody with LatAm rails](https://ptycoin.com/en/posts/2026-08-21-bull-bitcoin-mobile-wallet/index.md): Bull Bitcoin's open-source BULL wallet is self-custodial Bitcoin with Liquid Instant Payments, optional LatAm buy/sell rails, and no co-signing—plus a live caveat after Boltz paused swaps. --- Source: PTYcoin — https://ptycoin.com/en/posts/2026-09-11-ikigii-towerbank-btc-loans/. Free to read and cite with attribution to ptycoin.com. AI-usage terms: https://ptycoin.com/en/ai-usage/