Blur, a prominent NFT marketplace, has recently launched a new platform for NFT lending called Blend, in collaboration with Web 3 investment firm Paradigm. Blend is a peer-to-peer lending protocol for NFTs, and it aims to unlock liquidity for certain NFT collections.

Lending protocols such as Arcade, JPEG, and NFTfi already exist, but Blend stands out from the rest due to its unique feature - loans in Blend do not have expiration dates. The platform matches lenders and borrowers, with lenders specifying the interest rate and NFT collections they'll accept as collateral, while borrowers use their NFTs as collateral to borrow $ETH.

Borrowers can repay the loan and get their NFT back at any time, while lenders can increase the rate or stop lending by triggering a "refinance auction." The auction starts a Dutch auction in the interest space, and the winner pays the old lender his money and takes over the loan. If the auction fails, the borrower will be liquidated, and the old lender will take ownership of the collateral.

Blend also offers a Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) feature that uses previous primitives. The buyer can get the NFTs by depositing only a percentage of the actual price, and the seller will receive the full amount. The remaining money will come from a lender taking the NFT as collateral, and the buyer will have to pay back the lender the rest of the money to take full ownership of the NFT.

The platform has already seen success, surpassing $15.6m in loans within 24 hours of its launch. Blend's unique features have created a product/market fit, and the platform is expected to continue to gain popularity within the NFT community.

Blur has made a name for itself as an NFT marketplace that overcame the dominance of OpenSea. With the launch of Blend, Blur has expanded its offerings to include a lending platform that unlocks liquidity and allows users to borrow against their NFT collections. As the NFT market continues to grow, platforms like Blend will play an essential role in facilitating the exchange of NFTs and unlocking their true value.