DeFi Breaks New Ground: Figure Markets Launches $20M HELOC Facility—First-Ever RWA Financing on a Decentralized Platform

Wall Street’s worst nightmare just got real: DeFi is now underwriting home equity loans. Figure Markets—never one to shy away from blurring TradFi lines—just dropped a $20 million HELOC facility, marking the first-ever real-world asset (RWA) financing deal executed entirely on a decentralized marketplace.

No banks. No loan officers. Just smart contracts cutting out the middlemen like a hot knife through bureaucratic butter. The move signals DeFi’s accelerating pivot toward tangible assets—because let’s face it, crypto natives are tired of explaining to their in-laws that yes, ’digital scarcity’ is a thing.

While traditional lenders still fuss over paperwork, Figure’s blockchain-backed HELOC proves RWAs might finally be DeFi’s bridge to mainstream adoption—or at least a way to collateralize your crypto gains without selling that diamond-handed BTC. Cynical take? The $20M facility is a rounding error for JPMorgan, but in DeFi terms, it’s the first shot across the bow of a $10T mortgage industry that still thinks fax machines are cutting-edge tech.