# Actively Managing Idle Capital
When you borrow less than the maximum allowed, you have unused borrowing power. Most protocols let this sit idle, doing nothing. We call this 'idle capital,' and Altitude puts it to work earning yield on your behalf.
For example, if you deposit $10,000 of ETH, you could borrow up to 80% ($8,000 USDC). But borrowing at the maximum is risky if ETH drops in value, so you might borrow only 30% ($3,000 USDC) to stay safe. That leaves 50% of your borrowing power unused. Most protocols let that sit idle. Altitude activates a portion of it to generate yield that pays down your loan.
Altitude automatically activates part of this idle capital to generate yield on behalf of its users. Yield earned is automatically used to repay part of users’ debt.
## Changes in value of collateral
If the value of a user's collateral goes **up** and the user doesn't add or remove collateral, the loan-to-value for the user will **decrease** (just like other lending protocols). Altitude will then borrow more, so that there's more capital at work.
If the value of a user's collateral goes **down** and the user doesn't add or remove collateral, the loan-to-value for the user will **increase** (just like other lending protocols). Altitude will then borrow less, to reduce the overall loan-to-value to the vault's preset.
Your capital is finally working as hard as you did to earn it.
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