MarketLoan

Our story

The way the wealthy borrow, built for people whose wealth is in real things

Borrowing against your assets instead of selling them is not a new idea. Wealthy households have done it for decades. It just hasn’t been available to the people whose wealth is in real things — a watch, a ring, a car, a collection — rather than a brokerage account.

Fiddle-leaf foliage in warm window light, photographed close
Warm window light on real texture — the register this company is built in.Licensed via Unsplash

The problem we’re solving

Owning something valuable shouldn’t mean selling it — or pawning it at a loss

If your wealth is in things you own — a watch, a ring, a car, a collection — your options for cash are bad: sell and lose the asset (and pay tax), pawn it for a fraction of its value, or borrow unsecured at rates that price you as if nothing stood behind you. Meanwhile savers earn very little on cash, while the spread on secured lending is captured almost entirely by institutions.

What we’re building

A two-sided marketplace built around real collateral

Borrowers get fair-rate cash against assets that are professionally valued, insured, and held in custody — without selling them. Verified accredited investors fund those loans through Borrower Dependent Notes (BDNs): notes whose payments depend on the underlying borrower’s loan payments. Honest valuation and real collateral are meant to remove risk that today gets priced in as a penalty.

MarketLoan is a pre-launch product of an early-stage company. The BDN program is intended to be offered under Rule 506(c) of Regulation D only to verified accredited investors; it is not offered today, and investing would involve substantial risk, including possible loss of the entire investment.

How it works

Every loan runs the same documented chain

Trust is the mechanism, not a badge: each step below is a documented, automated process, and each carries a verifiable fact. Open any step to see what it means.

  1. 01

    Insured valuation

    An independent appraiser values the asset — with insured valuation — before any amount is set.

    What this means

    Every loan starts with the collateral, not a credit score: a professional third-party appraisal, carrying insurance, establishes what the asset is worth.

  2. 02

    Insured custody

    The asset moves into professional insured custody. You keep ownership, not possession.

    What this means

    For the life of the loan the pledged asset is held in insured custody. You retain ownership of your asset; you don't keep possession of it while it secures the loan.

  3. 03

    Perfected security interest

    The security interest is designed to be perfected by the collateral agent's possession of the custodied collateral through the funding window.

    What this means

    A UCC-1 is the public financing statement that records a security interest. Here, the collateral agent's possession of the vaulted asset is designed to perfect the interest through the funding window; the per-series UCC-1 is designed to follow at series close — in the collateral agent's name, for the series noteholders.

  4. 04

    Escrow

    Funds move through a fintech-grade escrow bank — never wallet-to-wallet.

    What this means

    Money is handled by a fintech-grade escrow bank, with the security interest held by an independent bank collateral agent for the benefit of the series noteholders — never directly between borrower and investor.

  5. 05

    Servicing

    Scheduled payments are boarded and tracked on a dedicated loan-management system.

    What this means

    Payments are boarded onto a dedicated loan-management system that tracks the schedule and status of the loan over its term.

  6. 06

    Commercially reasonable sale

    On default: a standing alert, as the loan grows large against the collateral's value, serves as the cure; if it passes the set limit, an automatic, objective trigger is designed to begin a commercially reasonable sale, with any surplus returned.

    What this means

    The collateral's value is monitored against a per-class limit for the life of the loan. A persistent alert as the loan nears that limit is designed to serve as the cure — there is no separate demand and no fixed cure period. If the limit is passed, an automatic, objective trigger begins the process — not an instant sale: a formal disposition governed by UCC Article 9 runs, the collateral is sold in a commercially reasonable manner, the series noteholders are paid first, and any surplus after amounts owed is returned to the borrower. The loans are non-recourse. This is the objective covenant, a design still subject to counsel review — never automatic seizure.

The security interest is held by an independent bank collateral agent for the benefit of the series noteholders. BDNs are intended to be offered under Rule 506(c) only to verified accredited investors; they depend on borrower payments and may lose value. This is not an offer.

The collateral

Assets with real, verifiable value

Watches, fine jewelry, vehicles, and collectibles — professionally valued, insured, and held in custody while they secure a loan.

Stacked paperback editions with a green sprig on a paper-white ground
Collected editions, still life — illustrative of the collectible class, not an actual custody item.Licensed via Unsplash
WatchRepresentative — illustrative · not an actual loan
Fine jewelryRepresentative — illustrative · not an actual loan
VehicleRepresentative — illustrative · not an actual loan
CollectibleRepresentative — illustrative · not an actual loan

What we believe

Principles we’re building on

Collateral over credit scores

Back loans with real, professionally valued assets — not by asking people to price a stranger’s creditworthiness.

Transparency by default

Clear terms, honest valuations, and plain-English explanations of both the upside and the risks — in the same breath.

Built inside the rules

We’re designing MarketLoan around established regulatory frameworks deliberately, rather than retrofitting compliance under pressure.

Who we are

Who we are

MarketLoan is a venture of Black Forest Holdings LLC, built by a team of operators who have built and scaled regulated financial products — banking, payments, and securities infrastructure. We’re building in the open and talking to the people who’ll use MarketLoan as we go.

MarketLoan is pre-formation and pre-launch. Partnerships described across this site are candidates under discussion — none are signed as of 2026-07-06.

See how borrowing worksTalk to the founder
Rubber-plant stems against a warm neutral wall
Warm neutral study — the working palette, not an office tour.Licensed via Unsplash

Follow the build

MarketLoan is pre-launch. Join the waitlist for build updates — it’s informational only, and reserves nothing.

Product updates only. No offer, no commitment, unsubscribe anytime.

Prefer to talk it through?Schedule a call with the founder