After 2017 that was definitely one of the best years for cryptocurrency and blockchain technology, 2018 brought with it a lot of difficulties for various crypto projects, including SALT, the membership-based and blockchain-backed lending and borrowing platform.
After suspending new memberships in February, SALT hit a rough patch once more in July 2018 when its CEO, Shawn Owen, abruptly decided to leave the company.
This event took place very shortly after Nexo (one of SALT’s strongest competitors, also a blockchain-backed loan provider) offered to buy the company. On Friday that week, Nexo published a Letter of Intent (LOI) to purchase SALT’s assets such as “loan receivables secured by corresponding collateral assets, brand assets and customer database.”
Since very little official details made their way into the light, this abrupt departure triggered a lot of bad press for SALT, some people even pointing out at the possibility of an exit scam, a fraudulent practice by unethical cryptocurrency promoters who vanish with investor money after the project’s ICO (initial coin offering).
What happened after?
For starters, Nexo’s offer was widely dismissed by the SALT community frowning upon these types of publicity stunts. Next, Sean Owen was replaced by the interim President and CEO, Bill Sinclair, as described by the platform’s official blog post.
The new CEO didn’t miss the opportunity to express his confidence in the project and optimism regarding the future of SALT, stating that “I’m looking forward to building a bridge of continued innovation between traditional financial services and blockchain. It’s been a pleasure to work with such smart and dedicated people, and we’re just getting started.”
Source: Wikipedia
Despite all the challenges and obstacles, SALT didn’t seem to stop its development as more and more blog posts announcing various happenings continued to appear on the platform’s Medium blog.
The events that followed defined all the previous rumors as unsubstantiated. In a recent blog post from August 1st, Bill Sinclair was adamant to point out the company’s commitment to future innovations. As such, the CEO gently expressed his appreciation for the interest shown by various competitors in buying SALT.
“Recently, SALT has received a number of marketing inquiries showing interest in buying our business. While we appreciate our competitors’ interest in our purpose and business model, our company is not for sale, nor are we seeking any M&A (mergers and acquisitions) activities,” he declared.
The CEO ended the blog post by once again expressing his great confidence in the project he represents. “With over $50 million in loans serviced to date, a user base of over 70,000, and active loans in 3 countries, the community should rest assured that SALT remains strong and is dedicated to improving its products, services, and availability.”
SALT’s new POA program
Over the following weeks, SALT displayed an unquenchable thirst for development as it announced a new Proof of Access (POA) program meant to expand member flexibility.
“With the long-awaited introduction of POA, members now have access to more flexibility when it comes to structuring their loans. This gives members the opportunity to tailor their approach in order to meet their individual borrowing needs. Members no longer have to pre-redeem SALT membership units to access borrowing limits. They can simply use their SALT membership units to customize the terms of their loan,” the blog post describes.
In short, POA provides the platform’s users with a simple way of modifying loan terms using the SALT token.
SALT’s services now available in 35 US states
Even more impressive is the company’s expansion of its activity to 20 more states in the US. With this move, SALT broadened its market reach by 60% by expanding its market penetration to  35 states, out of a total of 50 across the United States of America. The fact that SALT managed this during a bear market should be proof on its own that the company means business. Just as inspiring is the fact that SALT has hurdled above obstacles such as the large geographical scale of the US and the regulatory diversity between all the involved states.
“Until recently, SALT Lending has been operating in 15 U.S. jurisdictions, as well as New Zealand and the United Kingdom. Our active pursuit of additional opportunities to enable our members has paid off. We are proud to announce the addition of 20 new jurisdictions in the United States in which we can expand our operation for a total of 35. Effectively we’ve broadened our reach by 60%. As our growth continues, we anticipate making additional announcements about where we will be operating. For today, we are pleased to service an abundance of new member applications,” the blog post describes.
Source: https://blog.SALTlending.com
A new partnership for the benefit of nonprofit organizations
SALT has also announced via a blog post that its “philanthropic sister organization,” the SALT Bridge Foundation, partnered with Doing Good Foundation to lend a helping hand to other small nonprofit organizations.
The introduction of dynamic pricing
In its blog post, SALT describes its record-breaking growth and the fact that it is no longer just a start-up company. The post also offers a glimpse into how the company shifts to a dynamic pricing model, all the involved benefits, and how this move is a reflection of everything SALT has learned from its own experiences and from its community.
Source: Adobe Stock
When purchasing SALT memberships directly from SALT Lending, users will benefit from a competitive refund policy, from a “no quantity purchase limit at the quoted price,” “no slippage in price,” and from the possibility of viewing price updates on the borrower dashboard in real time.
“The goal is to offer a competitive price and easy experience for our customers,” CEO Bill Sinclair declared.
Based on all the current happenings, SALT could very well be described as a perfect example of professionalism. The first half of 2018 was an exciting period for the company, with lots of ups and downs, but SALT managed not only to overcome all the obstacles and hurdles along the way, but it managed to maintain an impressive degree of evolution on all fronts.
