The Solana-based crypto lending platform Jet is relaunching with fixed-rate loans, taking a page from traditional finance even as the majority of its crypto rivals cling to variable rate products.
Jet uses an order book design where borrowers and lenders set their own terms, including the level of interest rates and payback timelines.
“It’s not some artificially derived APY,” or annualized percentage yield, said founder James Moreau. “It’s entirely market-based.”
That’s how most capital moves through the global economy. In crypto, things are different; lending protocols advertise ever-changing interest rates that can climb sky-high and crash in the same day. The upside is that you might make a lot of money by taking a lot of risk. The downside is that you probably won’t.
Even with less risk, Moreau said, Jet’s model faces some friction from big traders like market makers who have grown used to the flexibility of variable-rate products, where they can often pull their money at any time (assuming the utilization rate isn’t too high, of course). With a fixed-rate product their crypto is locked for the length of the contract.
Jet’s own performance metrics – like almost every Solana protocol – have fallen sharply from their highs in late 2021, when the protocol had over $36 million in total value locked, according to DeFLlama. These days it is under $200,000.
Moreau admits it’s unlikely that fixed-rate lending products will provide the spark for a rush of liquidity returning to Solana. But he’s hopeful that the product can appeal to a niche of DAOs and other on-chain organizations who have large, dormant treasuries they can put to use.
Traders of staked SOL can also find “a very easy use case” for acquiring easy money through Jet, Moreau said. He’s targeting those who are engaged in maximal extractable value (MEV) strategies and staked SOL.
“We basically want to see as much of the lending money get borrowed as possible, and so that’s what I’m working on,” Moreau said.
