Pantera: The Future of Figure and RWA

Author: Mike Cagney, Co-founder and CEO of Figure; Ryan Barney, Partner at Pantera Capital; Compiled by: Golden Finance

Note: This article combines my (Ryan's) views and excerpts from the founder Mike Cagney's letter, aiming to emphasize the vision behind Figure and the significance of the IPO.

The IPO on September 11 is not only a milestone for Figure but also a watershed moment for blockchain.

For many years, we have believed that the most powerful use cases for blockchain are those that touch the real economy. Stablecoins are a groundbreaking example. We believe RWA is another example. Just look at RWA.xyz: over the past three years, the market has grown nearly fivefold, with on-chain assets exceeding $28 billion, and the projected numbers are staggering—over the next decade, tens of trillions of dollars in assets will be tokenized.

At the end of 2017, I had an epiphany about blockchain technology... It can create a native digital asset that allows everyone to understand its true ownership, composition, and history without the need for trust. Assets can be traded in real-time, bilaterally, without counterparty or settlement risk. Lenders can immediately gain true digital perfection and control over collateral. Blockchain fundamentally reshapes the origins, trading, and financing of assets.

Among them, Figure stands out. Mike Cagney and his team were not satisfied with abstract pilots or theoretical white papers. They built. They directly issued loans on-chain, performed the first blockchain securitization, and achieved the industry's first AAA-rated securitization. Since its establishment, they have issued over $17 billion in loans and facilitated over $50 billion in public blockchain transactions. In the process, they became the largest non-bank HELOC lender in the United States—not by using blockchain as a buzzword, but by proving it can solve the inefficiencies that have plagued capital markets for decades. To this end, they actually built their own Layer 1 blockchain, Provenance.

In 2018, mainstream blockchains were based on Proof of Work (PoW). The application of Proof of Work in the financial services sector faces real challenges, including cost, speed, and most importantly, predictability. Proof of Stake (PoS) began to gain momentum by addressing these issues... June and her team built and launched the Provenance blockchain, a public, Proof of Stake (PoS) decentralized blockchain designed specifically for financial services.

The results have become evident in the numbers. Figure achieved an adjusted net income of $339 million in 2024, with a revenue growth rate exceeding 60%; in the first half of 2025, its revenue reached $191 million, and profits amounted to $29 million. This combination of high growth and actual profitability remains rare in the fintech sector, let alone in the blockchain space. Moreover, this engine is only going to get stronger: in the second quarter of this year, Figure processed loans exceeding $2 billion, with nearly half coming from its partner platform Figure Connect, allowing third parties to directly access the blockchain capital markets through this platform.

The potential of blockchain goes far beyond disrupting existing markets. By putting historically illiquid assets (such as loans) and their performance history on the chain, blockchain can bring liquidity to unprecedented markets. This liquidity, combined with the ability to achieve true digital perfection and control over assets, will unlock unprecedented financing opportunities.

We quickly expanded our model to B2B2C—now we have over 168 third parties using our technology to issue loans on-chain—half of which are among the top 20 retail mortgage shops.

What is most impressive is the vision driving all of this. Mike has always been able to see the big picture— in this case, he can simultaneously perceive multiple aspects. The yield-bearing stablecoin YLDS, approved by the U.S. SEC, is such an example: it is a regulated blockchain-native product that connects the demand for yield with trillions of dollars in global liquidity. It foreshadows what will happen after the capital markets are rebuilt on a programmable track.

In 2022 and 2023, a $1 trillion outflow of bank deposits nearly destroyed the financial system. If the scale and scope of the Treasury's outflow of funds are appropriate, some measures need to be taken to fill this gap. We believe this is DeFi, and we are at the forefront in the RWA space.

We often talk about the "Seven Giants" in the Web2 space. Mike and we believe that the Web3 space is at the beginning of a similar wave - and Figure will be one of them. The reason is simple: they are proving that blockchain can reshape the foundations of capital markets, not just simplify a few steps.

Just as there are seven giants in the Web 2.0 space today, I believe that a group of companies representing blockchain technology will also emerge in the Web 3.0 space. Our IPO brings us closer to becoming a leader among these companies. Although we have been able to build a profitable and rapidly growing company based on blockchain technology in one of the most stringent regulatory environments, we are confident about how changes in regulation and the public market's acceptance of blockchain will drive industry development and opportunities in the coming years.

– Mike Cagney, Founder Speech

This is the future of credit, securities, and ultimately finance itself.

This IPO is a milestone, but it also marks the beginning of a larger transformation in the global market.