Avalanche grants $1 million for meme coin and NFT marketplace Salvor

Peer-to-peer NFT and meme coin lending protocol Salvor received $1 million in AVAX from the Avalanche Foundation to expand its services on the Avalanche C-Chain. This move is part of the Avalanche Rush Program, designed to accelerate the growth of decentralized finance (DeFi) on the platform.

Salvor has a dynamic lending system that allows users to use their NFTs and meme coins as collateral for AVAX loans, increasing liquidity and financial options within the Avalanche ecosystem.

“We started as an NFT marketplace to make trading easier for our users,” said Utku, founder of Salvor. “By introducing P2P NFT Lending, users can now borrow funds against their NFTs without needing to sell them. We believe this will play a key role in supporting healthy ecosystems. Our primary focus is to make NFTs more liquid.”

The Avalanche Rush initiative has been propelling DeFi on Avalanche since 2021, in an effort to make the ecosystem more inclusive, decentralized, and cost-effective. Salvor’s participation enables users to earn points through various activities such as creating loan offers and trading, with rewards paid in AVAX or Salvor’s ART token.

Salvor Lending’s strategies are tailored to boost capital efficiency across Avalanche’s NFT and DeFi ecosystems. The platform encourages borrowing against NFT and meme coin holdings, providing an alternative to selling valuable assets. Lenders benefit from earning interest on short-term loans, while borrowers gain immediate liquidity to fund new investments.

“Salvor’s participation in the Avalanche Rush Program marks a significant milestone for bridging DeFi and NFTs on Avalanche,” said Aytunc Yildizli, CEO of the Avalanche Foundation. “By facilitating secured loans against NFTs, Salvor not only potentially enhances liquidity but also widens the scope for NFT owners to engage in the financial ecosystem without selling their assets.”

Salvor has evolved from an art-centric marketplace since its launch, in November 2022, to a comprehensive trading and lending platform. They introduced unique features like NFT liquidity pools, a launchpad, and the P2P NFT lending protocol.

The addition of a peer-to-peer token lending protocol for meme coins on Avalanche aims to further improve their liquidity.