Financial ecosystem SALT announced that it has introduced first blockchain-based lending platform in a move to support loans that are denominated in national currencies collateralized by blockchain assets.

Secured Automated Lending Technology (SALT) allows borrower’s assets like bitcoin and Ethereum to be fully acknowledged and used as collateral. It allows blockchain asset holders to leverage their investment for cash loans without having to liquidate their holdings.

“Currently, if you are a holder of blockchain assets, a large piece of your financial wealth is not being recognized by lenders. With SALT, we see a future where virtually all of the world’s value is on blockchains, and lending is reflective of our globally-connected, digitized lives,” Shawn Owen, CEO of SALT.

SALT will also streamline every step of the loan process, thus facilitating a new blockchain-backed lending market and also provides borrowers, the access to capital-on-demand through its network of lenders. In simple terms, SALT focuses on the value of the borrower’s assets instead of their credit score and is able to dramatically reduce the complexity and costs of the loan process.

The platform will both monitor the value of the underlying collateral and keeps it securely stored in a fully-audited smart contract architecture, during the life of the loan. With SALT, lenders gain a new vehicle for investing in blockchain assets.

“SALT’s disruptive innovation is an important project for broadening the usefulness and global reach of blockchain technology,” Erik Voorhees, a member of SALT’s Board of Directors, said.

The new lending platform’s membership is built on industry-standard Ethereum ERC 20 smart contracts. The release also stated that before the platform’s launch this year, the membership of SALT will be made available to the public at a discount.