Closing your position

Closing has two milestones: clearing the debt on Ethereum and receiving the eligible BTC on Bitcoin. Repayment establishes the release condition; it does not itself spend the vault.

Clear the debt

Repay the full balance in the market’s borrowing asset and verify the finalized debt state. Interest and rounding can change the final amount from what you originally borrowed.

Pending liquidation or withdrawal must be reconciled with the canonical position. An Ethereum repayment does not erase a Bitcoin reveal or competing transaction already made usable.

Confirm the release condition

Once the repaid position is eligible for release, independent participants check its finalized Ethereum state. The matching release authorization makes the transaction you already signed usable. Its Bitcoin amount and destination remain fixed.

You do not need the protocol to negotiate a new payout. Normal release still needs available observers, the signed transaction package and adequate fees. Independent oversight explains how the release is checked without making the signer set the sole gatekeeper.

Receive the Bitcoin payout

The release creates a protected Settlement UTXO. A clean payout can be swept early with guardian acknowledgement, or through its delayed beneficiary path once the committed Bitcoin lock matures and the output remains unspent.

The guardian can use the prescribed reversal path for an invalid settlement. A reversal is a re-vaulting outcome, not a completed customer payout. Independent oversight explains these paths.

Confirm the actual Bitcoin payout and the final Ethereum collateral record before treating the position as closed.

Closing with debt or unavailable services

An inactive position that still owes debt has a separate, pre-authorized lapse closure. Its timing and outputs account for that liability; it cannot use a debt-zero release simply because normal activity stopped. See Keeping coverage current.

The customer-only escape path is a separate recovery mechanism for an eligible unspent vault after its timelock. It does not require a functioning destination chain, and it does not itself repay Ethereum debt. The requirements are in Recovery.

To remove only some BTC while keeping the loan, use Partial withdrawals.