Figure launches on-chain stock issuance and lending platform

Source: CryptoNewsNet Original Title: Figure launches on-chain stock issuance and lending platform Original Link: https://cryptonews.net/news/finance/32277608/ Figure is rolling out a new way for companies to sell stock using blockchain rails instead of the old market plumbing. The blockchain-based lender said it is launching a platform that enables firms to issue on-chain equity, while allowing investors to lend shares directly to one another. No clearinghouses. No retail brokers. No long chain of intermediaries standing in the middle of every trade.

The platform is called the On-Chain Public Equity Network, or OPEN. It will run on the Provenance blockchain and allow companies to issue real shares as blockchain tokens. These tokens are not copies or placeholders. They represent actual ownership. Investors will be able to lend or borrow against those shares directly, cutting down the traditional role played by prime brokers in stock lending.

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.”