ETHLend

Founded by Stani Kulechov, ETHLend was one of the earliest projects in the decentralized finance (DeFi) space. It launched in 2017 following a successful Initial Coin Offering (ICO) for its native LEND token. The platform's mission was to democratize lending by allowing users to borrow and lend crypto assets in a trustless, P2P manner, using non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to represent loan positions. In September 2018, to overcome liquidity challenges inherent in its P2P model, the company rebranded to Aave, shifting its strategy from decentralized P2P lending to a pooled liquidity protocol, which became a foundational model for the broader DeFi industry.