Blend Controls 82% of the NFT Lending Activity in the Market

Since the largest non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Blur launched its lending platform a few weeks ago, it has captured 82% of the market for loan volume.

Blur’s new platform, Blend, is drawing attention with its cutting-edge lending protocol in the rapidly expanding NFT sector.  NFT loan activity has increased significantly thanks to Blend. It seems that “whales,” those who influence  the market by making large trades, are making heavy use of this instrument, which has raised interest in the DeFi services that are part of the NFT ecosystem. This analysis looks at these changes and how they may affect the NFT ecosystem’s development and resiliency.

According to a study from DappRadar, the combined NFT loan volumes from May 1 to May 22 totaled $375M, of which Blend contributed 82% or $308M.

How did the Blend Grow

The well-known NFT trading platform Blur debuted the Blend Lending protocol on May 1, 2023, enhancing its technical capabilities. Peer-to-peer lending platform Blend gives crypto aficionados a distinct advantage by accepting any kind of collateral, including NFTs. 

Blend had a remarkable increase of 3945% in its loan volume within the first few weeks of operation, with its total loan volume increasing from 4,200 ETH ($7.6 million) on its first day to 169,900 ETH ($308 million) in only 22 days. 

Blend even exceeded other centralized platforms in terms of weekly loan volume by almost 2.93 times. In addition, Blend has contributed a substantial 82% of the borrowing volume across all NFT lending protocols since its debut.

Reason Behind Success

Blur had a turning point on May 1 when Blend, as previously mentioned, appeared on its platform. The Total Value Locked (TVL) increased dramatically that day, rising to $5.21 million. On May 22, the TVL had increased by nearly five times to $24 million, which marked a remarkable 360% increase. The entire TVL of Blur increased from $119 million to $146 million, a substantial rise of 22.6%, thanks to this notable increase in Blend’s TVL.

After season 1’s triumphant conclusion and following the token sale, Blur gained popularity and surpassed OpenSea in trading volumes. Blur has created a novel plan to strengthen its standing via its Season 2 incentives campaign.

By providing incentives, Blur is encouraging traders to only list their NFTs on its platform. For this reason, a total of 300 million BLUR, or $186 million, have been set aside. This strategy has attracted several NFT whales to the site, leading to $19 million worth of wash transactions being reported on Blur during the last week from 1,494 wallets.

NFT Portfolio of Blend 

When Blend was first released, it significantly changed the dApp landscape by adding support for three NFT collections: CryptoPunks, Milady Maker, and Azuki. These collections have stimulated the development of a thriving market for digital assets, drawing interest from a wide spectrum of merchants and investors.

Azuki and CryptoPunks led the lending volume on the first day, with 157 and 33 loans totaling 1,941 and 1,378 ETH, respectively. These numbers clearly place both collections into the exclusive “NFT aristocracy collections,” which is evidence of their great worth and scarcity.

The most loans were obtained by Milady Maker, a collection with a lower floor price and a larger trading base at 387, which equated to a loan volume of 888 ETH.

With the acquisition of Mutant Ape Yacht Club (MAYC) and Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) on May 15, Blend has strengthened its NFT offering. These collections immediately showed how powerful they might be, collecting 1,208 ETH and 1,058 ETH in loan volumes on the first day, respectively.

MAYC has accumulated 11,583 ETH in loan volume from 1,676 loans only in the last week, whereas BAYC only required 513 loans to acquire 18,067 ETH.

Conclusion

Blend has distinguished itself in the ever-changing cryptocurrency industry because of its dedication to supporting a variety of NFT collections and its ongoing efforts to bring new, innovative items into the industry. Traders and investors alike will be anxiously awaiting to see which collection emerges as the NFT universe’s next bright star as these collections continue to prosper.

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