In an attempt to close the gap between the traditional art market and the new digital asset class, NFT lending starter Arcade will fund Series A on Wednesday to develop a platform for high-value, non-alternative monetization. Announced that it has raised $ 15 million. Substitutable token, or NFT.
Funding was provided by eight investment companies, including Panthera Capital, Castle Island Ventures and Franklin Templeton Blockchain Fund, as well as Angel investor BlockFi CEO Zac Prince and Quantstamp CEO Richard Ma. The proceeds from the $ 15 million fund will be used to build the arcade platform.
Founded in 2020, Arcade is an NFT marketplace for lending that independently evaluates, validates and curates NFT collections and allows high value NFT owners to use them as collateral for loans. Robert Maciello, co-founder of the arcade, ZDNet The platform should be for both borrowers and lenders. “If you own a high-value NFT, you can borrow it for fair value. It supports about 45-50 different NFT collections, so it’s for NFTs of some value,” he said. Says.
Arcades, on the other hand, allow people to become lenders and are willing to lend capital to those who are trying to borrow on their assets. These transactions are sent to the smart contract platform on the Ethereum blockchain and are fully compatible with all ERC20 tokens including wETH, USDC and DAI. “We are a platform without custody,” said Maciello. “We have no access to anyone’s assets or money exchanged. There is a service fee to provide this smart contract system, but it is essentially Ethereum’s unmanaged escrow platform.”
Over the past few months, Arcade has financed about $ 3.5 million in a “private release,” which will be open to the public in January. Maciero said the arcade is open to millions of dollars of NFT collectors and institutional lenders, as well as to Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). It is a type of venture capital fund based on open source code without a management structure or board of directors. .. “We have a mix of different members and people using the platform on the lender side, and on the borrower side we don’t want to sell our assets, but rather they are a good use.” “They receive the proceeds of these loans and reinvest in NFTs, decentralized finance and other forms of cryptocurrencies and financial instruments without selling their assets.”
One of the unique features of the arcade is the use of wrapped NFT technology. This unique technology allows you to bundle and utilize multiple NFT assets to get a single loan, so you can get more loans and more liquidity. According to the company’s press release, Arcade will allow developers to build on the platform and support widespread use of the new digital asset class.
NFTs are one of the most misunderstood digital assets emerging in the blockchain space, and often have a hard time defining what an NFT is. Simply put, these are unique units of metadata and identification codes that exist on blockchains such as Ethereum and cannot be duplicated like fiat currencies and Bitcoin. They are usually in the form of digital files such as photos, videos, computer-generated artwork, and audio clips. These files can be “tokenized” and can be safely purchased, sold, or traded for financial evaluation. In other words, many NFTs are digital versions of valuable works of art. Think about DaVinci’s Mona Lisa. Mona Lisa can be duplicated in different formats, but only one true Mona Lisa.
But NFTs are more than just digital artwork. They can take the form of digital products, from luxury brand fashion and collectibles to real estate and online games. Maciello states that the arcade supports any NFT, whether it’s a digital collectible or an in-game asset for Avatar. “I think the world of NFTs will continue to expand and fan out over the next five years. Sometimes everything is NFTs, sometimes some NFTs are associated, but the angle of art is very important to people. It’s easy to get acquainted with. Understand that art can be bought and sold and has this history associated with it. It has enabled financial utilities that previously existed for art, but now borrows. This universe is huge, though it can be rented or rented. It’s bigger than just art. It’s for the whole NFT token standard. “
Arcade’s $ 15 million funding may be the first small step, but with the help of financial firms looking at the potential expansion of the NFT market, it makes a big leap in the empty marginal digital economy. You may be ready. “We will hire and continue to add teams,” said Maciello, who said he and his 13 staff would continue to build products, add them to the team, and enhance marketing efforts. “We believe that the arcade will serve as a portal to this monetization of the NFT concept and effectively take over not only this peer-to-peer lending platform, but also other types of products. We believe that the platform as well. We are also trying to do the same. We are innovative as a major cryptocurrency company, but we are focusing on NFTs, “he said.
