I. Corporate Positioning and Founding Background
Founded in 2018 by Mike Cagney (former SoFi co-founder and CEO) and June Ou and others, Figure is headquartered in California, USA Sunnyvale 。
The core appeal of Figure is to use Provenance Blockchain (an open-source PoS public chain designed for financial services) to promote the blockchainization of traditional financial assets such as loans, mortgages, and asset securitization, and create an "exchange for everything" financial market.
2. Core business and product structure
2.1 Figure Lending(Loans and securitization).
Figure started out as a home equity credit facility (HELOC) with a focus on on-chain loan origination, securitization, and transaction processes. In 2020, it underwent its first on-chain loan securitization asset issuance, which subsequently achieved a AAA rating. Its loan product types also cover DSCR (income ratio-based) loans and cash refinancing.
2.2 Provenance Blockchain (Digital Infrastructure)
Since 2018, Figure has developed the Provenance Blockchain, which uses a PoS consensus mechanism and is dedicated to recording loans, Data on financial assets such as securitized assets. To date, the chain has cumulatively carried more than $30 billion in RWA assets and over $10 billion in monthly TVL.
2.3 Figure Markets (Decentralized Exchange + Marketplace)
Launched in 2024, Figure Markets will evolve into an "all-market" platform that supports multi-asset trading of crypto assets, tokenized securities, credit bonds, loan claims, and more, using MPC technology to achieve distributed private key control.
The platform also provides functions such as leveraged trading, lending rate products (Yields), cross-asset financing and clearing, and is committed to forming a "decentralized trading market".
3. Team and core figure
Mike Cagney: Co-founder and CEO, founded SoFi, and has a background in UCSC and Stanford Graduate School of Business.
June Ou: Co-founder and President, involved in the construction of the Provenance ecosystem.
Matt Conroy (CTO), Clare Hove (COO), Laurie Katz (CRO), etc., all have experience in traditional finance or technology industries.
4. Financing process and valuation dynamics
In the early days of its establishment, it received tens of millions of dollars of angel and A round of funds.
In 2021, it closed a Series D financing of $200 million, valuing it at $3.2 billion.
Figure Markets announced in 2024 with an additional $60 million in Series A funding from investors such as Jump Crypto, Pantera, and Lightspeed Faction.
Figure Technologies and Figure Lending are expected to spin off IPOs in 2025 with valuation targets in the $2 billion–$3 billion range.
5. Innovation model and differential competitiveness
5.1 Structured assets
on the RWA chain
Figure is the first RWA asset chain on the blockchain to issue and flow AAA-rated assets, opening up the closed loop of loans, securitization, and transactions, and positioning innovative infrastructure.
5.2 Decentralized trading market
Ensuring security through MPC wallet and realizing non-custodial asset control and cross-asset trading is an important exploration path for decentralized finance.
5.3 Capital and Ecosystem Synergy
Combining traditional VC support, Figure VC investment projects, loan market and chain platform synergy, accelerate ecological diffusion.
6. Compliance Qualifications and Policy Layout
Figure Lending LLC holds an NMLS number and financial services license to provide loan services in multiple states.
Figure Securities is registered as an SEC and FINRA licensed broker-dealer, and its subsidiaries cover securities, lending, payments, technology, and more.
7. Market practices and ecological cases
On-chain loan securitization: Continuously launched multiple collateral asset-backed securities, with a cumulative financing scale of billions of dollars.
RWA Lending Pool: Users can borrow and borrow on the Figure Markets platform in a real cash flow asset-backed manner.
Cross-asset trading and leverage: Integrate multiple asset classes to achieve dynamic staking, clearing and cross-chain trading.
8. Challenges
in the development process
Regulatory complexity: It involves multiple countries and asset types, and requires a very high compliance system;
On-chain ecological competition: Facing competitors such as Coinbase, Anchorage, Paxos, etc., it needs to continue to invest in infrastructure construction and customer acquisition;
Technical and security risks: MPC, security audits, and on-chain asset professionalism need to be continuously guaranteed.
9. Future outlook and strategic path
Accelerating the IPO process: Promoting Lending and Technologies two systems were spun off and listed;
Expand asset types: support a wider range of RWA products such as pensions and insurance bonds;
Strengthen decentralized market capabilities: Open APIs to integrate more protocols and OTC liquidity;
Strengthen the global regulatory landscape: further improve the compliance layout in Europe, Asia-Pacific, Latin America and other regions;
Technology Ecosystem Extension: Support DAO governance, intelligent asset management tools, and open the underlying Provenance blockchain.
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. Summary With the goal of "blockchain-driven financial market innovation", Figure has built a complete closed loop from loans to securities, asset trading, and lending and clearing. With the support of Provenance public chain, MPC security mechanism and multi-license support, the company continues to expand at the intersection of RWA and DeFi through the scale of financing and team influence. The challenges in the future lie in compliance implementation and market diffusion, but its development path undoubtedly represents an important direction for the digitalization of financial assets in the future.
