Aave, a UK-based tech company which specializes in the development of decentralized and hybrid blockchain applications, announced on Wednesday the launch of bitcoin on its crypto lending marketplace platform, ETHLend.
According to Aave, ETHLend is a lending peer to peer marketplace where users can borrow money using their crypto assets as collateral. Aave reported that ETHLend had a lending volume generated of $20 million last year. While sharing more details about the platform and the launch of bitcoin, Stani Kulechov, CEO of Aave, stated:
“Economically, the introduction of Bitcoin to the marketplace is a momentous development in the crypto-lending industry as the Bitcoin market capitalisation floats above 50 billion USD. For the first time in the short history of crypto-lending, borrowers can propose their own interest rates for Bitcoin loans in a peer-to-peer marketplace instead of relying on lender dictated markets. By providing Bitcoin – in a decentralised fashion – we ensure more transparency, security and competitive interest rates to the crypto lending market. The potential is enormous: we might even see a formation of a global Bitcoin lending rate due to the scale and transparency involved in ETHLend.”
Founded in 2017, Aave offers an extensive list of products that range from ambient accounts, lending software, custody and payments services to blockchain-based games and developer tools. Aave then added that through ETHLend, users can now use Bitcoin holdings as collateral to borrow funds when they want to avoid selling their holdings in the hope of upside of the crypto market.