Nexo, the crypto borrowing and exchange platform, has launched an NFT Lending Desk in partnership with NFT hedge fund Three Arrows Capital. The new lending desk caters to over-the-counter, or OTC, clients to offer crypto credit backed by NFTs. Nexo is one of the first crypto lenders to allow customers to borrow stablecoins, ETH, and other cryptocurrencies using certain NFTs as collateral. The company stated that in its initial iteration, the service will accept Bored Ape Yacht Club and CryptoPunks NFTs, with more collections on the way. Clients can also use issued lines of credit as a means of art …

Many people are moving to decentralized finance (DeFi) as it offers a superior user experience compared to traditional financial services. Decentralized lending and borrowing protocols enable lenders to easily earn interest on their assets, while borrowers can seamlessly access loans with variable or fixed terms. While decentralized lending and borrowing protocols are seeing increased traction, they still face a number of challenges as the blockchain ecosystem continues to mature. First and foremost, DeFi loans are typically overcollateralized, meaning users have to deposit a significant amount of excess collateral to help ensure that the loan will be paid back. Unfortunately, excess …

The revolutionary world of decentralized finance comes with its own set of harsh realities. One of them being, the unpredictable nature of yields on lending platforms that are often reliant on real-time market demand and supply dynamics. To offset the risk involved in permissionless lending, DeFi lending platforms typically require collateral that even exceeds the borrowed amount. Not only does this create an “artificial limit” on demand for loans, but it also leads to low yields that are exceeded by those offered on centralized platforms. Moreover, while the premise of decentralized lending was meant to eliminate middlemen that benefit from …

Sentiment in the cryptocurrency market is back on the rise on Nov. 29 as the recent dip down into the “extreme fear” zone on the Crypto Fear and Greed Index slightly improved after Bitcoin (BTC) recovered above the $57,000 support, lifting the index higher into the “fear" zone. Despite the overall “fear” and “extreme fear” sentiments that have been dominating the market since the index began to decrease on Nov. 16, several sub-sectors of the cryptocurrency market including Metaverse-related projects and gaming protocols have seen breakouts to new all-time highs. The rapid gains seen in these projects has led to …

Crypto lending firm Celsius Network has expanded its $400 million Series B round from October to $750 million as a result of oversubscription in the firm’s capital raise. The company is now valued at $3.5 billion following the raise and CEO Alex Mashinsky told Cointelegraph he expects that figure to “double or triple” next year which would see it valued between $7B and $10.5B The firm previously closed the round on Oct. 12 amid a period of intense scrutiny placed on crypto lending firms from local regulators. Celsius CEO Alex Mashinsky emphasized at the time that “it’s not $400 million. …

Decentralized mortgage lender Bacon Protocol has minted its first seven mortgages as nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, offering investors and borrowers new options for accessing the residential mortgage market. The interest rate for each NFT mortgage ranges from 1.5% to 3.1% on properties in four U.S. states, the company disclosed Wednesday. That’s the interest rate borrowers pay after minting their mortgage through Bacon Protocol. By comparison, the average mortgage rate in the United States ranged from 2.27% to 2.98% for the week ending Nov. 10, according to Freddie Mac. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage peaked at 3.14% on Oct. 28. Bacon’s decentralized …

In a presentation made during the Singapore Fintech Festival, Annerie Vreugdenhil, chief innovation officer of ING, announced the firm is working on a trial of its decentralized finance, or DeFi, peer-to-peer lending protocol with the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets. Vreugdenhil said the following in regards to the development, as reported by Ledger Insights: We are looking into peer-to-peer lending in a DeFi kind of setup. But then not on Bitcoins. What is interesting to us is how you can probably create peer-to-peer lending or open up lending capabilities with different kinds of collateral. So with different ways of …

Annual percentage yields, or APY, on crypto borrowing and lending platform Aave have surged to record levels after capital withdrawals sent the decentralized finance, or DeFi, protocol into a liquidity crunch. At the time of writing, variable APY on borrowing stablecoin Dai via Aave has surged to 24.88%, compared to approximately 6.50% the day prior. According to cryptocurrency researcher Igor Igamberdiev, blockchain personality Justin Sun was responsible for at least billions of dollars in withdrawals in the past few hours. Aave's total value locked, or TVL, fell to $14.7 billion from $17.89 billion the day prior, based on data from …

A number of states in the United States, including Kentucky, Texas, Alabama, Vermont, New Jersey and, most recently, New York have been cracking down on crypto lending. Depending on one’s perspective, these can amount to acts of collective desperation or a foretoken of things to come. Asked about the clampdown on crypto lending firms like BlockFi and Celsius, Firat Cengiz, senior lecturer in law at the University of Liverpool, told Cointelegraph: “The crypto regulatory space is getting increasingly heated, and not only in the U.S. but also in the rest of the world.” She added that a new regulatory approach …

Many are quick to flock to stablecoins for their ability to de-risk cryptocurrency positions. A stablecoin can be pegged to any perceivably stable asset, for instance, a digital asset like Bitcoin (BTC) or a fiat currency like the US dollar. In theory, if a digital asset was pegged to the US dollar, $100 worth of the digital currency should mean $100 in the backed asset is held in a secure reserve like a bank account. Stablecoins are broad in utility; their uses include moving tokens between exchanges and protocols securely, lending out tokens or making payments. For this reason, they …

Feel mining is a French company that provides you access to the world of cryptocurrency through multiple offers: staking, lending, masternodes, mining, buying crypto, machine sales, hosting. Based in Grenoble, the company was recently accredited as a provider of services on digital assets (PSAN) by the French financial markets regulator Autorité des marchés financiers (AMF, E2021-022). The core of Feel Mining’s offering is its four “investment packs” that offer investors the ability to easily diversify their cryptocurrency holdings by investing in staking or running proof-of-stake (PoS) masternodes, which are arranged by risk tolerance. Serenity is, unsurprisingly, for the most risk-intolerant …

A bounty of up to $1 million has been offered to anyone who can cast light on the precise backing of Tether’s reserves. That backing just got a little bit murkier after Celsius Network CEO Alex Mashinsky reportedly said that Tether mints new Tether (USDT) in exchange for crypto assets — which appears to conflict with Tether’s own terms and conditions. Forensic financial research firm Hindenburg Research tweeted on Wednesday to its 171,000 followers that it holds “doubts about the legitimacy of Tether” and offered a reward of up to $1 million for important details on Tether’s reserves, which it …