By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 22nd, 2024
Pantera Capital’s principal noted that Arcade’s collateralization of NFTs could incentivize participation from institutional lenders, high-net-worth individuals, DAOs, NFT collectors, and others.
NFT-backed loan platform Arcade recently closed its Series A funding round, securing $15 million. With the fresh funds, Arcade plans to bring collateralized lending that connects NFTs to DeFi. The NFT-collateralized loan platform also said it would use the capital for building products. In addition, Arcade is looking at onboarding new employees, including in the legal department. According to co-founder Gabe Frank, adding the new employees will help the company better understand regulations related to non-fungible tokens.
According to Arcade’s LinkedIn page, the company is currently hiring to fill some roles such as senior software engineer, team coordinator, lead talent specialist.
Pantera Capital, Others, Contribute to Series A Funding for Arcade
In a press release, Arcade mentioned the participants of the Series A Funding, which includes Pantera Capital. The company expressed its pleasure with the funding, acknowledging the participation of the investors. The other contributors are Franklin Templeton, Lemniscap Blockchain Fund, Eniac Ventures, Protofund, Golden Tree Asset Management, Probably Nothing Capital, and Castle Island Ventures. The angel investors in the Series A financing round, as highlighted by Arcade, are the CEOs of BlockFi Zac Prince and Quantstamp Richard Ma.
Pantera Capital’s principal, Laura Stephanian, noted that Arcade’s collateralization of NFTs could incentivize participation from “institutional lenders, high-net-worth individuals, DAOs, companies with NFTs on their balance sheets, and NFT collectors & creators.”
In a statement, Frank said:
“The DeFi industry currently contains over $200B in Total Locked Value, with NFTs accounting for a significant portion of that value; however, the lack of infrastructure in DeFi prevents NFT holders from achieving liquidity on their holdings despite massive marketcaps.”
Arcade is compatible with ERC-20 tokens, including USDC, wETH, and DAI. Also, the platform allows developers to build with its open-source DeFi primitive. The company’s co-founder made his debut into the crypto space in 2018. However, he had understood the concept of fungible tokens before then. Frank’s insight into loans is collateralized with NFTs and non-fungible physical belongings like watches, paintings, and diamonds. Furthermore, the platform features proprietary Wrapped NFT (wNFT) technology. This technology enables several NFT assets to be bundled “and utilized to acquire a single loans, enabling for the acquisition of larger loans and greater liquidity.”
NFTs’ Evolution
NFTs went mainstream in 2021, making headlines and attracting several newbies. At the same time, auction houses started making NFT deals by interacting with artists and buyers. Fine arts company Sotheby’s and auction company Christie’s sold NFTs for $65 million and $100 million, respectively. Audition houses generally made deals with NFTs buyers across social media platforms.
“I see Sotheby’s shifting from where people once bid at auctions to where people now make online purchases on Sotheby’s website,” PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster stated.