Firefish primary sources — 2026-05-01

Project status in this pass

• No canonical standalone whitepaper or litepaper surfaced.
• The clearest current sources of truth were the official product pages, docs hub, and public firefish-protocol repository.
• The protocol surface appears intentionally public-review-oriented: the repo is presented as deployed production code that can be verified, even though external development is not yet the main intended contribution path.

Primary-source snapshots

1) Homepage

• URL: https://firefish.io/
• Key excerpt:
  • Frames Firefish as “The open market for Bitcoin-backed loans.”
  • Says Bitcoiners can borrow cash while investors lend in EUR, CHF, CZK, USDC, and other currencies.
  • Highlights a non-custodial protocol and positions Firefish as a marketplace connecting Bitcoiners, institutions, and investors.

2) Borrow product page

• URL: https://firefish.io/borrow
• Key excerpt:
  • Says borrowers can unlock fiat without selling bitcoin and request loans in roughly 10 minutes.
  • Lists loans starting at €800, interest rates from 5%, 3–24 month terms, and 50% LTV.
  • Describes a four-step flow: set terms, match with an investor, lock BTC into on-chain escrow, then receive loan proceeds to a bank account.
  • Says users can opt for instant loans with predefined terms and top up collateral to avoid liquidation.

3) Investor page

• URL: https://firefish.io/investors
• Key excerpt:
  • Frames Firefish as a way to fund loans and earn interest with “bitcoin-backed loans” collateralized at 200% value.
  • Splits the investment surface into marketplace investing, Auto Invest, and an institutional / qualified-investor alternative-fund route.
  • Reinforces that Firefish is not only a borrower app but also an investor and capital-allocation platform.

4) Auto Invest page

• URL: https://firefish.io/auto-invest
• Key excerpt:
  • Says Auto Invest automates allocation into Firefish instant loans rather than requiring manual marketplace selection.
  • States minimum size around 150,000 EUR or CZK equivalent and says investors choose their target rate.
  • Claims current yields can reach up to 13.9% p.a. in EUR and 10.9% p.a. in CZK.
  • Shows that Firefish is productizing larger-ticket capital deployment rather than only ad hoc retail matching.

5) Docs hub

• URL: https://docs.firefish.io/
• Key excerpt:
  • Summarizes Firefish as a place to borrow fiat or stablecoins using bitcoin collateral, invest in bitcoin-backed loans, and rely on a non-custodial protocol.
  • Says Firefish never touches, trades, or exchanges borrower bitcoin, which is instead locked in a smart contract built on top of the Bitcoin network.
  • This was one of the clearest official confirmations that the company wants to be understood through custody architecture, not only through marketplace UX.

6) Protocol repo landing page

• URL: https://protocol.firefish.io/
• Key excerpt:
  • Redirects to the public GitHub repository Firefish-io/firefish-protocol.
  • Reveals that the “protocol” surface is not a separate whitepaper site but a code-first technical reference point.

7) firefish-protocol README

• URL: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Firefish-io/firefish-protocol/master/README.md
• Key excerpt:
  • Says the library implements the main Firefish smart-contract logic for creating offers, accepting offers, pre-signing transactions, and related processing logic.
  • Says the production code can be verified and includes a CLI, serialization code, and WASM bindings for borrowers.
  • Documents regtest-style flows for escrow creation, cancellation, repayment, default, liquidation, and reproducible or deterministic build verification through Nix.

Working conclusion

Firefish is best cataloged as non-custodial bitcoin-backed lending infrastructure: a marketplace and capital-allocation layer built around bitcoin-native collateral escrow, bank-account payout flows, and a publicly reviewable protocol codebase. The combined product pages and protocol repo show much more operating surface than a simple consumer borrowing site.