How the Market Works
Zona is an overcollateralised money market on Robinhood Chain, with Chainlink-primary valuation and borrowing controls written for tokenized equities.
Suppliers deposit into a shared pool. Borrowers draw from it against collateral they have posted. Interest flows from the second group to the first, continuously, at a rate the pool sets from its own utilisation. No order book, no counterparty to match with, no fixed term.
Market structure
Collateral
Supply one tokenized equity to unlock borrowing power.
SPCXSpaceX
METAMeta Platforms
NVDANVIDIA
AAPLApple
QQQInvesco QQQ- SPYSPDR S&P 500 ETF
- SGOViShares 0-3 Month Treasury Bond ETF
Borrow
The market has one borrowable asset.
USDGGlobal DollarUSDG does not count as collateral, so supplying it does not increase borrowing power.
Equity tokens are collateral and nothing else; USDG is borrowable and is not collateral. Borrowing a stock token would let someone short it, and unwinding that, for them or for a liquidator, needs DEX depth that is still building on this chain.
One equity collateral per position
Each stock reserve is listed in isolation mode. A position uses one equity as collateral, borrows only USDG against it, and each reserve carries its own debt ceiling. Valuation adapters work independently, while the shared borrowing checks still need complete evidence for every eligible collateral. A stock can be excluded only after its borrowing power is confirmed disabled onchain.
Supplying does not switch collateral on by itself: enabling an isolated asset as collateral is a separate transaction, offered in the app after you supply. Until you take it, the deposit earns but grants no borrowing power.
Currently disabled
- Efficiency Mode. No categories are configured because equity collateral and USDG are not correlated assets.
- Flash loans and stable-rate borrowing. Switched off in the reserve configuration.
Risk parameters
Two risk parameters do most of the work, and it is worth knowing what they mean:
- Max LTV caps what you can borrow as a share of collateral value.
- Liquidation threshold is the share at which the position becomes liquidatable. The gap between the two is your buffer, and on this market it is set wider than a crypto market's because the price can gap while the exchange is shut.
What works, and when
This is the part that differs most from other lending markets. New borrowing follows the 24/5 calendar, usually Sunday 8:00pm through Friday 8:00pm ET, and requires a valid session certificate and ongoing monitoring. Holiday and early-close blackouts still apply. An asset gate can remove one stock's borrowing power while other eligible stocks continue to pass the shared checks. Existing positions are valued directly from Chainlink through asset-specific validation adapters. When a required price is invalid, valuation-dependent actions stop instead of using a price the protocol cannot verify.
| Action | When prices are valid | When a collateral price is unavailable |
|---|---|---|
| Repay USDG debt, in part or in full | Allowed unless the USDG reserve is paused | Allowed unless paused; repayment needs no equity price |
| Add collateral to an existing position | Allowed unless frozen, paused or capped | Allowed unless frozen, paused or capped; it authorises no new debt |
| Supply USDG as a lender | Allowed unless frozen, paused or capped | Allowed unless frozen, paused or capped |
| Withdraw after all debt is repaid | Allowed when the reserve is active and unpaused, subject to liquidity | Allowed when active and unpaused, subject to liquidity; no price is needed |
| Borrow more USDG | Only when the active borrowing window and every borrowing gate are open | Blocked |
| Withdraw or disable collateral while in debt | Requires safe resulting health and compliance with any zero-LTV restriction | Blocked because the resulting health factor cannot be verified |
| Transfer collateral zTokens out of an indebted account | Allowed when the resulting health factor remains safe | Blocked because the resulting health factor cannot be verified |
| Liquidate an unhealthy position | Allowed at any time with valid valuations and unpaused reserves | Blocked because account health cannot be verified |
| Read your health factor | Shown live when every required valuation is valid | Unavailable; repayment and collateral top-ups still work |
| Interest accrual | Continues | Continues |
A borrowing-hours or AWS closure affects new borrowing only. With valid prices, it does not block withdrawals, zToken transfers, health checks or liquidations.
Repayment and collateral top-ups remain available when borrowing is closed. Debt-free withdrawals need only pool liquidity. Full detail on Prices & Market Hours.
The lifecycle of a position
Supply
Deposit an asset and receive a zToken, an interest-bearing receipt that accrues in your wallet.
Borrow
Draw USDG against enabled collateral. Debt accrues interest continuously at a utilisation-driven rate.
Repay
Pay back principal and interest at any time, in part or in full. No term, no prepayment penalty.
Withdraw
Redeem zTokens for the underlying, once the position stays healthy and the pool holds liquidity.
Running underneath all four is the health factor, a single number summarising how close the position is to liquidation.
Where the interest goes
- Borrowers pay a variable rate driven by utilisation, how much of the supplied USDG is currently lent out. An empty pool is cheap to borrow from; a nearly drained one is deliberately expensive, which is what pulls new supply in and pushes borrowers to repay.
- Suppliers receive almost all of it. Interest accrues into your zToken balance block by block. A published reserve factor is retained by the protocol; the rest is yours.
- Interest never stops. It accrues while new borrowing is closed and during any recovery hold. Liquidation remains available whenever the direct collateral price is valid.
- Nothing is fixed in advance. The APY on screen when you supply is a snapshot, not a promise.
All 7 equities earn very little as supply, because nobody can borrow them. You supply those to borrow against, not to earn.