Pawnfi.com (Pawnfi) has announced the closure of a $3M strategic funding round. The investment round was led by Digital Currency Group (DCG) and also included Animoca Brands, Dapper Labs, Polygon, DeFi Alliance, Hashkey Capital, Everest Venture Group, SNZ, and 6Block.
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The first DeFi product of its kind, Pawnfi.com is a brand-new lending and leasing market. It appraises, liquidates, and provides use cases for non-standard assets (NSAs). Supported NSAs include non-fungible tokens (NFTs), liquidity provider tokens (LP tokens), tokenized rights, minor crypto-currencies, and bundled assets. With the development of metaverse, more NSAs will emerge, and how these assets are priced, traded and liquidated will be crucial to the revolution of the entire financial industry. To stay ahead of the evolutionary metaverse, Pawnfi.com strives to allow asset holders to access diversified cash flow and to maximize their asset efficiency.
To achieve this, Pawnfi.com uses the pawn concept, tapping into the liquidity locked in NSAs. Unlike traditional pawn lending or leasing, the collateral is digital and custody/settlement is governed by the blockchain on which it is hosted; Pawnfi workflow is managed via smart contract escrow and settlement.
Matthew Beck, Director of Investments at DCG, had this to say about the project: “DCG is proud to be an early investor in Pawnfi.com. Pawnfi’s decentralized liquidity protocol can activate vibrant borrowing and lending markets for non-standard crypto assets, including NFTs — driving improved capital efficiency and greater value to these markets and the creator economy.”
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Yat Siu, Executive Chairman and Co-founder of Animoca Brands, added, “Animoca Brands is excited to back Pawnfi.com. With its innovative interlocking blocks of ‘Pawn+Lease+Sale’, we expect to see more NFT assets unleash their liquidity as they take advantage of the potential on Pawnfi.”
Pawnfi.com launched a closed beta to strategic investors, GameFi partners, and NFT KOLs in December 2020. Using the feedback obtained, it has now completed key iterations and innovatively put forward solutions for the fair value, liquidity, and risk control of NSAs.
Pawnfi EVM version supports ETH, BSC, Polygon, Arbitrum, and Moonbeam chains. Additionally, it will allow cross-chain integration on Flow and other chains to ensure an improved and holistic user experience. Pawnfi will maintain the momentum on product development, white-list assets, multi-chain network support, and other innovative functions, delivering weekly iterations.
Speaking about the long-term prospects of the project, Pawnfi Founder and CEO Wesley Kayne stated, “The NSA market that Pawnfi addresses is significantly larger than the current NFT market. Specifically, the liquidity and user base will be many times higher than that of standard assets as the metaverse is gaining momentum. We will keep our edge in the scale of assets that Pawnfi covers and continue to put forward innovative functions.”
The Pawnfi development team comprises elite professionals from across the blockchain R&D, traditional financial industry, and game industry with a combined several years of development experience. The team will initially spearhead the protocol, addressing both operational and strategic issues. After growth is achieved, Pawnfi will transition into a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) where loyal users and contributors can participate to improve the platform’s product and service directions.
The demand for NSAs has greatly increased and with it their associated value. For example, in just the third quarter of 2021, NFT trading volume surged to $10.67 billion according to a report by analytics platform DappRadar. Unlocking the use case and liquidity in this growing asset class will be a game-changer.
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