Blend controls 82% of NFT lending activity in the market
Since the largest NFT marketplace Blur launched its lending platform a few weeks ago, it has captured 82% of the lending volume market.
Blur’s new platform, Blend, is attracting attention with its pioneering lending protocol in the fast-growing NFT sector. NFT’s lending activity has increased significantly thanks to Blend. It seems that “whales”, those who influence the market by making large trades, are heavily using this instrument, which has increased the interest in the DeFi services that are part of the NFT ecosystem. This analysis looks at these changes and how they may affect the development and resilience of the NFT ecosystem.
According to a study by DappRadar, the total NFT loan volumes from May 1 to May 22 amounted to $375 million, of which Blend contributed 82% or $308 million.
How the mixture grew
The well-known NFT trading platform Blur debuted the Blend Lending protocol on May 1, 2023, improving its technical capabilities. Peer-to-peer lending platform Blend gives crypto aficionados a distinct advantage by accepting any form of collateral, including NFTs.
Blend saw a remarkable 3,945% increase in lending volume in its first few weeks of operation, with total lending volume increasing from 4,200 ETH ($7.6 million) on the first day to 169,900 ETH ($308 million) in just 22 days.
Blend even surpassed other centralized platforms in terms of weekly loan volume by almost 2.93 times. In addition, Blend has contributed a significant 82% of lending volume across all NFT lending protocols since its debut.
The reason behind success
Blur had a turning point on May 1 when Blend, as previously mentioned, appeared on their platform. Total Value Locked (TVL) increased dramatically that day, rising to $5.21 million. By May 22, TVL had increased nearly fivefold to $24 million, marking a remarkable 360% increase. The entire TVL of Blur increased from $119 million to $146 million, a significant increase of 22.6%, thanks to this remarkable increase in Blend’s TVL.
After Season 1’s triumphant conclusion and after the token sale, Blur gained popularity and surpassed OpenSea in trading volume. Blur has come up with a new plan to boost their status via their Season 2 incentive campaign.
By providing incentives, Blur encourages traders to only list their NFTs on the platform. For this reason, a total of 300 million BLUR, or 186 million dollars, has been set aside. This strategy has attracted more NFT whales to the site, leading to $19 million worth of wash transactions being reported on Blur in the past 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 range of sellers 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 figures clearly place both collections in the exclusive “NFT aristocracy collections”, which is proof of their great value and scarcity.
The most loans were received by Milady Maker, a collection with a lower floor price and a larger trading base of 387, which corresponded 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 could be, collecting 1,208 ETH and 1,058 ETH respectively in loan volume on the first day.
MAYC has collected 11,583 ETH in loan volume from 1,676 loans in the last week alone, while BAYC only required 513 loans to raise 18,067 ETH.
Conclusion
Blend has distinguished itself in the ever-changing cryptocurrency industry due to 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 waiting to see which collection emerges as the next shining star of the NFT universe as these collections continue to flourish.
