NiftyApes comes out of stealth

We're reinventing lending, borrowing, and debt markets—and we're starting with your JPEGs.

NiftyApes comes out of stealth

Better mortgages for your JPEGs

We're thrilled to announce the NiftyApes protocol is coming out of stealth.

This is us, being thrilled.

TLDR:

  • We're reinventing lending, borrowing, and debt markets with Harberger Style Lending Auctions.

Introducing the NiftyApes protocol — which is a major step forward for anyone looking to borrow or lend against NFTs.

NiftyApes takes a new and different approach to lending marketplaces. This strategy drives toward a fair market value of the assets. On top of that, we're making debt a public good, enabling borrowers and lenders to both benefit from market competition.

Our team has been in Web3 since 2017, and we have been building NiftyApes since October of 2021. We have an amazing group of investors, partners, and advisors who are excited about the future of regenerative NFT finance.

The problem with borrowing

Debt markets have always favored those with (lots of) capital. The wealthy impose less-favorable terms for borrowers (e.g., those with less capital).

In the system that we currently have, the folks that need loans get the worst terms. The ones who don't need loans get the best terms. This vicious cycle is as old as lending itself.

So why can we break that cycle now? Two things have changed: blockchain, and cheap(er) capital.

Programmable money means that we have the opportunity to design new markets. Markets that are efficient and fair. Efficient markets provide better ways to value assets. And equitable designs help us to distribute goods and reward effort. These were once only theoretical concepts. Now they can be implemented at the speed of code (and audits).

The second big change is that due to over a decade+ of low interest rates, capital is cheaper than it's ever been. Even with recent rate hikes, capital remains rapacious.

Web3 makes that capital more efficient and rapid inflation makes it hungry for returns.

We were promised jetpacks (decentralization, open economies, positive-sum games). Instead, we're copy-pasting strategies from Wall-Street into the Metaverse. Will we recreate the same IRL dynamics we've been living with for 5,000 years in the digital world?

There's a future where whales need the minnows as much as the minnows have needed the whales. That's what we're building at NiftyApes.

This is our moment to design a better future.
We can't waste it.

In our current system, capital competes for borrower's before the loan is initiated. Lenders assume the value of the collateral, at the bare minimum, retains its value, but will probably go up.

Once the loan is executed, capital becomes complacent. The lender sits on the debt as the asset appreciates. Lenders are free to trade the debt with other lenders while borrowers jump through hoops to refinance.

So what happens if capital had to compete over the fair market value of the loans through the entire lifespan of the loan?

The Solution - Harberger Style Lending Auctions

No More Capital Squatting on Loans

Lender 1 has an ocean of capital, and they're comfortable with a modest LTV and a respectable APR on any Bored Ape. They set a 50Ξ for 90 days offer for all Bored Apes.

In the (near) future: pools can be created, co-funded and automatically maintained via Yearn

Lender 2, has less capital, higher risk tolerance, and a bullish thesis on Bored Apes with the 3d + Toga attribute, so they set a more aggressive offer on Bored Ape #6974.

Every offer is presented, sortable, and executable in the NiftyApes offer-book, but the frontend will by default sort by the lowest interestRatePerSecond, which is: Amount * InterestRate / Duration

The Borrower who owns BAYC #6974 connects their wallet on the NiftyApes platform. They see the "Top Offer" the best offer based on NiftyApe's lightly opinionated front-end.

Instant liquidity for Borrowers, extremely flexible mechanisms for lenders, & pricing data for the market

The borrower has the choice to execute any offer in the NiftyApes offer book.

Over the life of the loan, the Bored Apes Yacht Club's price increases but the active loan has not responded to the collateral's increase in value.

A new, hungry lender decides to bid on the active loan.

They've made a better offer (meaning all the terms are at least equal, plus one term is better by at least '1'). The new lender pays a 0.50% origination premium + any outstanding interest accrued to the originating lender for conducting initial price discovery and for the time they provided capital. And the loan has been permissionlessly refinanced.

The borrower's terms are immediately upgraded. Any extra funds offered in the new loan can be drawn down by the Borrower.

New lenders can provide better terms, lower APR or extra funds many times over the life one the loan.

Why commit to a single lender and rely on their generosity to refinance the loan? Let market competition refinance your loans for you automatically.

In the happy path borrowers can repay their loans by the end of the loan duration, or in the unhappy path, they don't and their asset is seized by the lender.

Currently there is no fee for lending or borrowing on NiftyApes. This may be changed by protocol governance in the future. There is however a set of premiums imposed on lenders when they take a greedy action such as refinancing a loan the block after a previous refinance (griefing a lender for the cost of gas). These premiums are described in detail in our documentation and whitepaper.

To top it all off, NiftyApes programmatically donates 1% of revenue to regen projects and public goods via the Regen Collective. Can't be evil > don't be evil. With every transaction we turn a degen into a regen (more to follow in future posts) :)

Not just for your JPEGs

The end-point of the NiftyApes protocol goes beyond the current NFT bull-market. Our goal is to build the next institutional grade liquidity protocol for non-fungible assets of every type.

I want my loan to be auto-refinancing as my home gains value. I want to buy a house on NiftyApes.

Every participant of the protocol benefits from the appreciation of assets. Borrowers get automatically refinancing loans that can only improve over time. Lenders gain access to otherwise closed sources of revenue. The ecosystem benefits from the fair market pricing through the innovation of Harberger Style Lending Auctions. Hugs all around.

Cui Bono? Everyone. 😘🤌

The Team

Unbothered. Doxxed. In their lane, focused, & shipping.

We're compulsive builders who've survived the bear market of 2018-2020. We've worked on projects like Gitcoin, ConsenSys, OpenSC, Arweave, and Maiden + MIT DCI. We're here to invent something completely new, and build on the bleeding edge of art, non-fungibles, and finance.

They've worked with teams like ConsenSys, The Boston Consulting Group, Moonshot Collective, Arweave, Idle Finance, Filecoin, and Gitcoin and are now bringing NFT and DeFi native experiences to all users.

What's next?

The functionality outlined above is soon to be live on Mainnet, and audited by Quantstamp and Sherlock (final reports dropping soon).

We're polishing the front-end to provide a perfect UX for borrower and lender alike. And it is so, so close to done.

We are just getting started

We have an ambitious product roadmap. This includes everything from going multi-chain to automating strategies across DeFi protocols. If you are someone who wants to help build the future of regenerative finance,  join our Discord and check out our open positions.