> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.usegimbal.app/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.usegimbal.app/orientation/readme.md).
# Gimbal in one page
Fixed-rate, fixed-term loans against tokenized stocks, agreed lender to borrower on Robinhood Chain and settled by contracts that hold no one's funds.
The Gimbal mark: two interlocking bands rendered in polished glass.
Someone holding Robinhood Stock Tokens wants USDG for thirty days. A lender wants a fixed return for the same thirty days, secured by those tokens. Gimbal is the place where the two find each other, settle the terms they chose, and let a contract hold the collateral until the loan is closed. That is the whole product. The rest of these docs explain how it is done safely.
{% hint style="info" %}
Gimbal is in production on Robinhood Chain, whose mainnet carries chain ID 4663. The platform is at [usegimbal.app/platform](https://usegimbal.app/platform). Borrowing and lending require a verified eligibility attestation. These pages describe the protocol; they are not investment advice.
{% endhint %}
## The name
A gimbal is a pivoted mount. Whatever it carries stays steady and pointed while the craft around it moves. Gimbal does the same two jobs. Rate and term are fixed at origination and stay fixed while the market moves around them. And every loan stays level and in view: each step is written to Robinhood Chain, and the Observatory, the public loan explorer, lays that record out for anyone to read.
## What the market is
The first market is securities-backed lending, the product private banks have long sold as a Lombard or margin loan. On Gimbal the collateral is Robinhood Stock Tokens (AAPL, NVDA, SPY and the rest in tokenized form), and the loan currency is USDG. The rate is not set by a curve. The borrower names the most they will pay and each lender names the least they will accept, and a loan forms wherever those overlap. One request can be filled by one lender or by a syndicate of many, each holding a slice.
Nobody custodies anything. Lender funds stay in the lender's wallet until the moment of origination. Collateral sits with an immutable escrow contract that has no administrator. If a loan fails, the contract sells the collateral in a Dutch auction. No court is involved.
## One loan, start to finish
1. The borrower publishes a borrow request: collateral token and amount, the principal wanted, a ceiling on the APR they will pay, a term, and a launch window, the point after which the request can no longer fill.
2. Lenders answer with lend offers, each signed off-chain under EIP-712 and each carrying that lender's own rate.
3. Once the offers add up to the request, the borrower sends them to the desk in a single transaction. The contract checks every signature and every party's eligibility, escrows the collateral, moves each lender's USDG to the borrower, and mints one slice token per lender.
4. Interest accrues at the agreed rate for the whole term.
5. Three exits exist at maturity. The borrower repays. Or a rollover auction hands the loan to new lenders at a rising rate; or the loan defaults and the collateral goes to a Dutch auction.
While a lender's USDG waits for a fill it is not idle. A lender who opts in has it parked in a Morpho money market that already exists on the chain, until the desk pulls it into a loan.
## Where a pool falls short
Pooled lending works well when the collateral is deep and liquid. It is the wrong tool for a single-name stock, a token with thin DEX depth, a weekend when the underlying exchange is shut, or a private-company token. Each of those needs a price agreed loan by loan and a term with an end date. Gimbal exists for that part of the market.
| Question | In a pooled RWA money market | On Gimbal |
| ---------------------------------- | ------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Who sets the rate? | A utilisation curve, so it floats | The two parties, and it stays fixed for the term |
| When does the loan end? | Never by itself | At maturity, with a rollover auction to extend it |
| Which collateral qualifies? | A short, capped list of liquid assets | Every oracle-priced Stock Token, the long tail included |
| Who carries the risk? | Every supplier, jointly | The lender or syndicate that wrote the loan |
| Where does bad debt land? | On all suppliers | On the lender who priced that loan |
| What happens to unmatched capital? | Earning the pool rate | Held in a Morpho vault until a fill arrives |
| How is collateral recovered? | Liquidated into DEX liquidity | A Dutch auction whose floor is bounded, or in-kind settlement |
## The essentials
| | |
| ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Chain | Robinhood Chain, chain ID 4663, an Arbitrum Nitro L2 |
| Currency of every loan | USDG, the Paxos Global Dollar |
| Collateral today | Robinhood Stock Tokens |
| On the roadmap | Long-tail Stock Tokens first, then treasuries and fund shares in tokenized form, per the [Flight plan](/roadmap/flight-plan.md) |
| Shape of a loan | Fixed rate and term; a request may be split among however many lenders it takes |
| Custody | None. Principal moves only at origination; collateral sits in an immutable escrow contract |
| Default | The contract runs a Dutch auction; no legal process |
## Lines Gimbal does not cross
* No loan is written without full collateral. Undercollateralised and unsecured lending is excluded in every form.
* Gimbal operates no pooled vaults of its own.
* No token emissions subsidise rates. $GIMBAL exists, and the protocol's income is explicit fees; see [How Gimbal earns](/resources/revenue.md).
## Reading order
* First visit: [Why this market, why now](/orientation/the-moment.md), then [Eight rules the protocol keeps](/orientation/eight-rules.md), with the [Vocabulary](/orientation/vocabulary.md) open beside them.
* Mechanics: start at [A tour of the mechanics](/mechanics/tour.md), then [Every state a loan can hold](/mechanics/loan-states.md), [Offers, requests and origination](/mechanics/offers-and-origination.md) and [Health factor and the collateral auction](/mechanics/health-and-auctions.md).
* Risk: [The risk register](/risk/register.md) and [Four precedents the design answers](/risk/precedents.md).
* Building on it: [System map](/architecture/system-map.md), [The contract set](/architecture/contracts.md) and [Build and deploy](/architecture/build-and-deploy.md).
* Using it: [Borrowing against Stock Tokens](/guides/borrowing.md), [Lending on your own terms](/guides/lending.md), and [Reading the Observatory](/guides/observatory.md) for loans you have no part in.
---
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