reNFT: dual-sided rental UX for NFTs
Project overview
reNFT is an NFT rental protocol - collateralized and collateral-free rentals, designed for GameFi guilds, metaverse worlds, and any product where someone benefits from temporarily holding an NFT. I joined as lead designer in late 2021 and stayed through V1 growth and the $5M seed round, owning the dual-sided rental UX, brand, marketing site, and design system.
reNFT
2021–2022
Web3 / NFT rental infrastructure
Lead Product Designer
~year+
Seed (Animoca → Mechanism / gCC)
Product Design, IA, Brand, Web Design, Design System
Context
Renting an NFT is a strange product to design for: every user is both a lender and a renter, sometimes within the same session, and the flow has to make collateral, terms, and time-bound ownership feel safe enough to act on. reNFT was the protocol behind that entire category - quietly building rental infrastructure that GameFi guilds, metaverse worlds, and NFT projects integrated with directly. When I joined, the protocol had launched but the design layer had to grow up to match the seriousness of the partners signing on.
Problem
- - Every user wears two hats - lender and renter - and the IA collapsed the two roles together.
- - Collateral, terms, and time-bound ownership were technically clear but emotionally unclear - users hesitated.
- - Rental status (active, expired, returned, disputed) was hard to track across sessions.
- - Partner-facing surfaces and end-user surfaces shared no design language.
- - No reusable system - every new flow re-invented the same primitives.
Selected visuals
Approach
The principles and concrete choices that shaped the work - what we picked, and why we picked it.
- 01
Split lender and renter into distinct mental models
Even though the same wallet does both, the UI treats them as two roles with separate entry points and dashboards. Users stop second-guessing which role they're in.
- 02
Front-loaded the things people fear
Collateral amount, rental duration, return mechanics - surfaced inline at the moment of decision, not buried in advanced settings.
- 03
Status as a first-class concept
Active / expired / returned / disputed - a single state model that drives every list, card, and detail screen across the product.
- 04
One brand for partners and end users
reNFT is invisible infra in some integrations and a direct product in others. The brand and component system flex across both without breaking.
- 05
Token-driven design system
Set the token + primitive layer the team kept shipping on after I left - V2, additional chains, and integration UIs were built on these foundations.
Metrics
Funding raised during my tenure
Pre-seed protocol (early 2021)$1.5M seed (Oct 2021, led by Animoca Brands) → $5M seed (Jul 2022, co-led by Mechanism Capital and gumi Cryptos Capital)
Crunchbase · Funding outcomes; design is one factor among many.
Strategic investors and partners signed during tenure
-Animoca Brands, Mechanism Capital, gumi Cryptos, Gemini, OpenSea, The Sandbox, Sfermion, Morningstar Ventures, EveryRealm, OP Crypto
Chains supported
Ethereum onlyEthereum, Polygon, Avalanche, Solana - multi-chain rental infrastructure
reNFT · Multi-chain expansion happened across my tenure and beyond; my work covered V1 surfaces.
GameFi / metaverse integrations
A handful of proof-of-concept integrationsYGG (Yield Guild Games) strategic partnership (Dec 2022); ecosystem integrations including Rarible, MetaSoccer, Animetas, Galaxy Fight Club
Impact
- - Built the dual-sided rental UX (lender + renter) used by GameFi guilds and metaverse partners
- - Set the brand, marketing site, and design system that V2 and integrations later built on
- - Designed across the seed era - from $1.5M (Animoca) to $5M (Mechanism / gCC)
Qualitative outcomes
- - Lender and renter flows were clear enough for non-Web3-native game guilds to adopt.
- - Brand and system carried through to V2 and the partner / integration UIs.
- - Strategic investor list (OpenSea, Gemini, Sandbox, Animoca) signed onto a product whose surface was a meaningful part of the pitch.
