Anvil wants to make secured credit cheaper by killing the middlemen

Anvil, an Ethereum-based DeFi protocol, facilitates programmable letters of credit, or LOCs, backed by on-chain collateral like ETH or USDC. Users deposit assets into vaults, issue credit instruments against them, and never actually give up control of their collateral. No loans. No interest payments. No intermediaries skimming fees at every checkpoint.

How programmable letters of credit actually work

Anvil replaces the traditional letter of credit stack with smart contracts. A borrower deposits collateral into an audited vault on Ethereum, and the protocol issues a programmable LOC against it. The collateral stays in the borrower’s control, visible on-chain, verifiable by anyone.

The protocol charges no protocol-level fees. Its codebase is open-source and has been audited by both OpenZeppelin and Trail of Bits.

The team and the ecosystem taking shape