NFT lending platform Arcade grabs $15M in Series A funding round

Non-fungible tokens (NFT) lending platform that allows users to use NFTs as loan collateral, Arcade has announced that it has raised $15 million in a Series A fundraising round.

Pantera, Franklin Templeton Blockchain Fund, Castle Island Ventures, Golden Tree Asset Management, Protofund, Eniac Ventures, Probably Nothing Capital, and Lemniscap were behind the investment along with angel investors BlockFi CEO Zac Prince and Quantstamp CEO Richard Ma in an attempt to connect NFT-collateralized lending with the DeFi sector. 

Wednesday’s announcement indicated that Arcade is also emerging from a private release with a $3.3 million worth of a loan, secured on a total asset value of $10 million.

Gabe Frank, the co-founder of Arcade, believes that the NFTs make up a large component of the ever-growing DeFi sector, which is now valued at more than $250 billion in total value locked. He stated:

“However, the lack of infrastructure in DeFi prevents NFT holders from achieving liquidity on their holdings despite massive market caps.”

Other platforms, such as ETNA Network and Lithuania-based lending platform Drops, have also established or are in the process of introducing services to facilitate loans against NFTs. Teller Finance, a lending protocol, revealed in March that some of its customers would be able to get loans without putting up any collateral, thanks to special NFTs.

Arcade to expand its roots in the U.S.

The LinkedIn page of Arcade indicates that it has a minimum of ten employees based in the United States, and the company is now searching for a senior software engineer, team coordinator, and lead talent specialist, among other positions. The platform’s collateralization of NFTs, according to Pantera Capital principal Lauren Stephanian, has the potential to attract involvement from “institutional lenders, high-net-worth people, DAOs, enterprises holding NFTs on their balance sheets, and NFT collectors.”

Recently, as TheCoinRise reported, HodlGod also included the trending NFT lending feature under its new update.