Figure Launches On-Chain Stock Issuance and Lending Platform - A New Era for Digital Securities
Wall Street's old guard just got a blockchain-powered wake-up call. Figure Technologies has flipped the switch on a platform that lets companies issue and trade stocks directly on-chain—while letting investors use those digital shares as collateral for loans. It's a one-two punch that could reshape how capital moves.
The Mechanics: Tokenizing Equity
Forget paper certificates and slow settlement. Figure's system converts traditional equity into digital tokens on a permissioned blockchain. Issuers get a streamlined, transparent fundraising tool. Investors get a liquid, programmable asset they can actually use—not just hold.
The Game-Changer: Instant Collateral
Here's the real kicker. Hold a tokenized stock? You can now pledge it as collateral for a crypto loan in minutes, not weeks. It unlocks the dormant value in investment portfolios, creating a seamless loop between traditional equity and decentralized finance. No more begging your broker for a margin loan.
Why This Cuts Deep
This bypasses the entire legacy infrastructure of custodians, transfer agents, and loan officers. It turns static shares into dynamic financial tools. The efficiency gains are massive—and so is the threat to intermediaries who profit from friction.
The Finance Jab
Of course, the traditional finance crowd will call it reckless. They prefer their inefficiencies well-manicured and highly profitable, thank you very much.
This isn't just another DeFi protocol. It's a direct bridge between the analog world of corporate equity and the digital future of finance. If it gains traction, the very plumbing of Wall Street starts to look optional. The race to tokenize everything just hit the straightaway.
OPEN removes intermediaries from stock issuance and trading
Figure said OPEN will let companies issue equity straight onto its blockchain. The firm plans to be the first user of its own system. Once issued, the equity tokens will trade on its decentralized trading venue. Co‑founder and Executive Chairman Mike Cagney said the goal is to strip out the layers that usually sit between issuers and investors.
“We’re really cutting everything out,” he said. “That means no central securities depository, no centralized stock exchange, and no retail brokers acting as intermediaries.”
He described the setup as a rebuild of how equity capital markets work, using blockchain data instead of traditional systems. Cagney said this approach could still leave room for prime brokers, but in different roles. He pointed to cross-collateralization and new lending services as possible areas where brokers could operate within an on-chain structure.
Founded in 2018, Figure went public in September, raising $787.5 million in its initial public offering. Cagney created the company to focus on blockchain‑based lending, including home equity lines of credit, after previously serving as CEO of SoFi Technologies Inc.
The company said it is already seeing interest from firms that want to issue shares through OPEN. That list includes digital-asset treasury firms, also known as DATs. These companies raise money to hold cryptocurrencies on their balance sheets. One well‑known example is Strategy Inc., which focuses on bitcoin holdings.
Many DATs have seen their stock prices fall below the value of the crypto they hold following a broad market selloff in October. Cagney said OPEN could help close that gap. Investors would be able to buy shares using cryptocurrencies directly. He gave an example of purchasing stock in a Solana‑based DAT using solana itself.
“When you’re on OPEN, the shareholder has a digital wallet that can take digital assets,” he said. “That gives you a fast way to run a tender process and pull the price back to net asset value.”
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