TrueFi (TRU)

Lending and Borrowing

TrueFi is a decentralized credit protocol that allows borrowers to get loans without collateral and lenders to earn predictable, transparent yields by lending to vetted borrowers. It connects global lenders with institutional-grade lending opportunities and real-world use cases.

Governance and Credit Rating

The TRU token is used by holders to govern the protocol, including approving new borrowers and portfolio managers. TRU holders participate in a credit prediction market where they rate the creditworthiness of borrowers, helping build a permissionless, incentive-driven credit system.

Risk Management and Staking

TRU tokens can be staked to participate in credit decisions and earn rewards. Stakers take on some risk, as up to 10% of staked TRU may be used to cover losses if a borrower defaults, providing a buffer to protect lenders.

Real-World Asset Integration

TrueFi has expanded to include tokenized short-term U.S. Treasury bills, bridging traditional financial assets with DeFi and offering new ways for users to generate yield.

Automated Lines of Credit

TrueFi uses automated lending pools with interest rates set by supply and demand dynamics, incentivizing lenders and borrowers to maintain optimal liquidity and utilization rates.

Secondary Market and Loan Tokens

Loans are tokenized, representing shares in loan repayments plus interest, though initially, these loan tokens are not transferable. This opens future opportunities for secondary markets.

Overall Purpose

TrueFi aims to make credit more accessible, transparent, and programmable by bringing debt infrastructure on-chain, creating a market-driven, automated credit rating and lending system that serves both crypto-native and real-world borrowers.

Advantages

• TrueFi offers uncollateralized lending, allowing borrowers to access capital without locking up collateral.
• It provides lenders with predictable, transparent yields and competitive annual percentage rates (APR).
• The platform bridges traditional financial assets with DeFi by enabling loans using U.S. Treasury bill tokens as collateral.
• TrueFi uses a decentralized credit system where TRU token holders rate borrower creditworthiness, creating a permissionless and transparent credit market.
• It supports quick and easy access to capital for borrowers with proven track records.
• The protocol is governed democratically by TRU holders who vote on loan approvals and protocol changes.
• TrueFi integrates zero-knowledge verification to enhance privacy and streamline user onboarding.
• The platform has shown strong growth in total value locked (TVL) and has maintained zero defaults since launch.
• TrueFi offers interoperability with other DeFi platforms, increasing flexibility and utility for users.
• Staking TRU tokens contributes to platform security and rewards participants, encouraging long-term engagement.

Disadvantages

• TrueFi’s lending is permissioned and governed by the community, which some users may find restrictive.
• The platform’s success depends on regulatory developments and adoption of real-world assets, which can be uncertain.
• Price predictions for TRU show mixed outlooks, reflecting market volatility and external factors.
• The protocol involves risks related to uncollateralized lending, with staked TRU bearing default risks.
• Some users may find the governance and credit rating system complex compared to traditional collateralized lending platforms.
• TrueFi’s market is relatively small, so large holders ("whales") can influence price movements significantly.

Founders

TrueFi was founded by Rafael Cosman, who is also the CEO. He co-founded TrueFi as part of TrustToken, the team behind several stablecoins including TrueUSD.

Leadership

Rafael Cosman leads the project and has a background in computer science and machine learning. He has experience working at Google and co-founded a nonprofit focused on tech education.

Company Background

TrueFi is developed by TrustToken, which has a history of launching asset-backed stablecoins. The team aims to build TrueFi into a leading decentralized protocol for uncollateralized lending.

Investors in TrueFi

TrueFi has raised a total of $12.5 million in funding from 4 main investors. These include:

• BlockTower Capital: Lead investor in the latest funding round.
• Andreessen Horowitz (a16z): A well-known venture capital firm.
• Alameda Research: A prominent crypto trading firm.
• One other investor (unnamed in the available data).

These investors participated in a single funding round held on August 5-7, 2021. TrueFi was also originally funded by TrustToken, the team behind the TUSD stablecoin.

Halal Status of TrueFi

• TrueFi is a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol focused on uncollateralized lending and credit rating using its native token TRU.
• The platform emphasizes transparency in lending and borrowing activities.
• TrueFi’s model involves interest-bearing pools and credit rating by token holders.
• From the available information, TrueFi operates with clear, transparent financial activities and does not inherently involve prohibited elements like uncertainty (gharar) or interest (riba) in a traditional sense.
• However, no explicit halal certification or definitive ruling is provided in the sources.

Answer: Yes, TrueFi can be considered halal based on its transparent and permissionless credit system without explicit involvement of prohibited elements, but no formal halal certification is mentioned.