The NFT lending market reached a record high of $2.13 billion in the first quarter, up 43.6% QoQ, with five of the top six platforms seeing an increase in volume.
The non-fungible token (NFTs) lending market saw its leaders consolidate their positions, with total NFT lending volume rising to a quarterly high of $2.13 billion in the first quarter, representing 43.6% QoQ growth, according to For Data Published by CoinGecko.
Data shows that January saw a record $0.90 billion in total monthly NFT lending volume, surpassing the previous peak of $0.85 billion in June 2023. Among the biggest gainers, Blend emerged as the leader, capturing a staggering 92.9% share of market. The monthly lending volume reached $562.33 million in March alone.
“Although Ethereum NFT pools dominate NFT loan originations, the potential impact of the growing popularity of Bitcoin Ordinals on the NFT lending market remains an interesting area.”
Queen Gekko
Other players in the NFT lending space, such as Arcade and NFTfi, have also seen growth, although they represent a much smaller market share at 2.8% ($16.94 million in volume) and 2.2% ($13.3 million in volume) of straight. At the bottom of the hierarchy, X2Y2, BendDAO, and Parallel Finance (formerly ParaX) have smaller market shares of 0.8%, 0.8%, and 0.5%, respectively.
To encourage more user engagement, NFT lending platforms are offering new incentives to boost trading volumes. For example, in late February, Pantera Capital-backed Arcade unveiled its “Clash of Clans” Airdrop initiative, which aims to distribute ARCD tokens to 4,000 wallets, each eligible to claim 750 ARCD tokens. Likewise, other marketplaces like X2Y2 and BendDAO have also launched their own tokens for their community members.
