Airdrop guide for the biggest Solana NFT lending platform: Sharky
Sharky, the biggest NFT lending platform on Solana has just announced they will launch a new token “$HARK” in the first half of 2024.
In their announcement, Sharky listed two key actions that will be “rewarded” — all but confirming an airdrop of $HARK.
With the Solana ecosystem on fire presently, this promises to be a potentially very lucrative airdrop.
Below is a guide on how to potentially qualify for the $HARK airdrop along with some analysis on what the token may be worth at launch.
Airdrop guide
The two criteria the Sharky team identified in their announcement of $HARK were:
- Borrowing and lending NFTs on Sharky
- Buying and holding Sharx NFTs
Criteria #1 Borrowing and lending NFTs on Sharky
Lending
Lending on Sharky is pretty straightforward. Select an NFT collection, and enter a loan amount you are comfortable with (I typically only lend up to 80% of the floor price of the NFT — but this will be a function of your risk tolerance). The duration of loans ranges from 7–16 days, with interest earned in SOL based on the APYs of each collection.
A potential “win-win” strategy here is to lend against NFTs that you have been wanting to buy. The strategy that I set out on X is as follows:
- Lend against an NFT you have been wanting to buy (e.g., a Smyths NFT) Smyths current floor price is 13 SOL, and can lend against it for ~9 SOL. The duration of the loan will be 7 days
- At the end of the 7 days, two outcomes are possible:
- Floor price of Smyths (e.g., 14 SOL) is above your loan amount (e.g., 9 SOL) — In this case, the loan is repaid and you receive ~.2 SOL in interest for the loan (plus generate activity for the airdrop)
- Floor price of Smyths (e.g., 8 SOL) is below your loan amount (e.g., 9 SOL) — The borrower can default on the loan, and you will receive the Smyths NFT. Here you receive an NFT you wanted (at a lower price than what it was at the start of the week) and have activity for the airdrop
A bonus is that occasionally lenders will forget to repay their loan when the floor price is above the loan, meaning you can take the NFT for a price well below the floor price
Borrowing
On the other side, Sharky also allows you to borrow against Solana NFTs you have — paying interest in SOL.
Another “win-win” strategy here is to borrow against any Solana NFTs you are thinking of selling. In the event that the floor price drops below your loan amount, you can default on the loan — essentially selling your NFT for above the market price.
It's likely Sharky will reward both borrowing and lending on their platform — so aim to do a mix of both.
Criteria #2 Buying and holding Sharx NFTs
Sharky also has a collection of NFTs called “Sharx”. There are four levels of NFTs, with the ability to upgrade each Sharx using their utility token $FISHY. $FISHY can be purchased on the market or can be earned through lending/borrowing on the platform (as well as through holding Sharx). See full details here.
Holding Sharx NFTs also has the benefit of receiving a share of royalties from Sharx NFTs (50%) and a cut of the platform fees (25%). This can be quite lucrative, particularly for level 4 Sharx (see December earnings below).
Sharky has stated that the following will be taken into account for $HARK:
- Number of sharxs you hold
- What levels you hold (i.e. higher levels the better)
- Whether you have recently bought a sharx
How much might the $HARK token be worth?
It's pure speculation at this point as to the size of the airdrop and the Fully Diluted Value (FDV) of $HARK at launch.
However, one hint is to look at the valuation of a comparable token. Of the other Solana NFT lending platforms, only Banx has a token (being the $FRAKT token). Looking at NFT lending volume by protocol, we can see for the month of December Sharky had ~3.2x the volume of Banx.
Currently, the $FRAKT token is trading at ~9M FDV. If we value $HARK on a multiple of volume, the FDV of $HARK would sit at ~30M.
However, this is likely to be a very conservative estimate, particularly as 1) Token valuations tend to disproportionately reward market leaders (as Sharky is in this space) and 2) Sharky has announced they will expand into financial products for RWA/consumer loans and go multi-chain (including BRC20)
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Note this does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation — do your own independent research before engaging in any trades or transactions
