Blur NFT lending protocol gets mixed reactions from the community

Nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace Blur recently launched its collateralized lending protocol called Blend, allowing a buy now, pay later approach to purchasing NFTs. 

Members of the community had varying reactions. Some believe that it’s a massive development for the space, while others called on the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to protect users against such products.

On May 1, Blur launched a peer-to-peer perpetual lending protocol called Blend, a platform it developed with the help of venture capital firm Paradigm. The protocol supports NFT collateral, and the team claims it would collect zero fees from lenders and borrowers.

A community member praised Blur’s new move, saying it’s “massive for the space” and makes things more efficient. They tweeted:

Massive for the space – great move by @blur_io. Effectively this allows you to loan out your ETH for yield, and also allows better cash/jpeg efficiency. https://t.co/PikWKqN0Jn

— peepeedog.eth (@peepeedog) May 2, 2023

Meanwhile, another Twitter user thinks that the new development from the OpenSea competitor is a good distraction from the “overall negative sentiment” within the NFT space. The community member may be referring to the dwindling number of NFT buyers in April. According to data from the analytics platform NFTGo, sellers dominated the NFT market in the month. 

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While some focused on the positives, others disapproved of NFT lending. A community member highlighted the risk of being unable to pay the loan and losing much more money. Meanwhile, an NFT collector took the opportunity to give a lesson on NFTs.

1st rule for #NFTs : only invest money you can afford to lose. If you need a loan, you’re overexposed! So just don’t do it and don’t let blur tell you something else! In this space there are kids playing with money. Giving them a loan and take their poket money is just criminal https://t.co/N3IqSWLTbL

— Taki_Nooby_Booby (@Taki_NoobyBooby) May 1, 2023

Web3 lawyer Jesse Hynes tagged the SEC’s Twitter account and said that the commission should be protecting investors from this type of activity. According to Hynes, it’s “extremely dangerous.” 

Blur has been positioning itself within the NFT space, prompting moves from OpenSea in what the community informally refers to as the “NFT marketplace wars.” On Feb. 18, OpenSea implemented 0% fees to win back its users from Blur. OpenSea also recently launched an advanced NFT marketplace aggregator in another effort to rock the boat.

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