I'm seeking the loan because I want to go long BTC before the reward drop. I have enough bitcoins to sell and cover the loan if btc does go down during the loan.
ICBIT.se provides leverage 1:10 leverage. Obviously going 10X with a volatile currency like bitcoin is nutzoid but you can simply deposit 1 BTC and from those funds you get margin and from that buy a 1 BUZ2 contract. So if BTC/USD goes up a $1, the future might go up around $1 as well.
So you get the upside in value on 2 BTC, but only had 1 BTC deposited. Again, that 1 BTC deposit has a lot more leverage, and you could actually buy multiple BUZ2 contracts with that 1 BTC (up to about 10 contracts).
Additionally, BUZ2 can be obtained at about 4% below the spot market at present so with less than a month from settlement on that even if BTC/USD doesn't gain you would realize that 4% difference.
Now the risks are, of course, that the exchange rate drops and if you are too far leveraged (and thus insufficient margin) you could possibly end up having your account liquidated.
Another risk is that ICBIT is operated anonymously, and the track record for exchanges and other services that hold coins and are operated anonymously is not good.
But I wanted to share this here in case it was of interest to you.
