Project Insight: Kava Lend

Kava Lend is a Lend, Borrow and Earn Application

In Kava Lend, Kava Labs has its own cross-chain money market that offers lending and borrowing services. Kava Lend, powered by $HARD token, can leverage Kava's blockchain technology to create more functional services that allow users to open access to the DeFi world. 

Kavas cross-chain market, initially known as Harvest, then HARD Protocol – and rebranded to Kava Lend, provides users with ease of access to the decentralized finance (DeFi) space. 

This is a massive step for DeFi as it gives users more DeFi applications (Dapps) to choose from. Many users will prefer to use Kava Lend's cross-chain market instead of having to battle on the Ethereum network to get their transactions sent during periods of a high volume. Users can expect to pay gas fees above $50 on similar lending and borrowing services during high volume days, such as CREAM, AAVE, and COMP. 

How was the Kava Lend Application Built?

Kava Lend is built on the Kava blockchain, allowing it to use Kava's cross-chain bridges, Chainlink oracles for price reference, and also harnesses Kava's security system.

Currently, the project is in the V2 stage of its roadmap. This update was pushed at the turn of 2021 and allowed users to supply and borrow assets. The initial V1 meant users could deposit on the supply-side to earn HARD governance tokens. Currently, users can supply USDX, KAVA, HARD, and BNB. At the time of writing, yields range from 20% (Supply BNB) and up to 1,800% (Supply HARD). 

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Key Advantages of the Kava Lend 

• Kava Lend is an open and permissionless DeFi application that allows access to anyone and everyone. This includes integration of the LEND money markets into Fintech app's and even Financial Institutions.

• The $HARD governance token allows users to evolve the platform on how they see fit

• Allows users to effortlessly lend, borrow and earn without exposure to high transaction fees

Tokenomics & Distribution

Token: Kava Native HARD Token

Total Value Locked (TVL) $170,572,270‍

Circulating Supply 91,666,667

Total Supply 200,000,000

Max Supply 200,000,000

Source: CoinGecko

The Kava team has conducted no private or seed HARD token sale to achieve a fair distribution.

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Liquidity Mining Rewards (Yield Farming)

Kava Lend allows users to earn through borrowing and supplying assets, through rewarding users in its native governance token, HARD. The HARD governance token aims to enable users to control what assets will be offered, reward distribution structure, and have access to setting platform fees or other important parameters. As previously mentioned, in HARD v1, users were given the chance to supply USDX, KAVA, HARD, and BNB to receive HARD governance tokens. At the time of writing, the TVL is $29,035,019, which can be seen in table 1. With the release of HARD v2, HARD protocol will accept more assets and enable borrowing and borrowing rewards.

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Kava Lend’s Future

Currently, Kava Lend is focusing on building on its rollout of V2 at the beginning of the year. The previous upgrade consisted of governance expansions and borrow-side invectives, which will complete the platform's aim of a cross-chain lending market. Supply and borrow incentives for the following digital assets have since been supported with the release of HARD v2:

• BTC
• XRP
• BNB
• BUSD
• LINK
• USDX

Kava Lend will only continue to expand as KAVA continues to build out its DeFi ecosystem.‍

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Overall Thoughts

Kava Lend provides alternatives to "blue-chip" DeFi lending platforms such as AAVE, SNX and COMP. Its cross-chain technology built using KAVA allows for minimal fees and secure transactions. Kava Lend provides lend, borrow, and earn in an accessible fashion. The V2 update opened up opportunities for users with the introduction of borrowing to the platform. And the aim is to propel it into the same class as the Ethereum DeFi giants.