Blockchain-based lender Figure has launched a way for companies to list their shares natively on the blockchain.
The company said its On-Chain Public Equity Network (OPEN), announced Wednesday (Jan. 14), differs from other tokenization efforts in that OPEN shares are recorded on the blockchain and not as a tokenized version of Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation (DTCC) securities.
“OPEN is reinventing stock trading,” said Mike Cagney, executive chairman of Figure, in a press release. “The significant advantages over the centralized incumbent model are driving companies to use OPEN and their investors demanding it. Having extended over $20 billion in on-chain credit, we are now excited to bring public capital to Provenance Blockchain.”
According to the release, the shares will trade on a limit order book using Figure’s Alternative Trading System (ATS), allowing for continuous trading. Shareholders will be able to use Figure’s Democratized Prime, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol to borrow and lend their shares, “disintermediating the role that prime brokers traditionally play,” the company added.
Figure said it plans to be the first issuer to use OPEN, having filed a public registration statement in November for a non-dilutive secondary stock offering using the network. The company added that market makers like Jump Trading are preparing to join the blockchain, while BitGo has agreed to offer qualified custody services to eligible OPEN shareholders.
“We are seeing growing momentum in the industry toward more transparent, blockchain-native market structures,” said Mike Belshe, co-founder and CEO of BitGo. “Figure’s on-chain OPEN offerings represent the next evolution of digital asset markets, and BitGo is proud to support the infrastructure that allows them to operate securely and at scale.”
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PYMNTS spoke with Todd Stevens, Figure’s chief capital officer, last year following the company’s initial public offering (IPO).
The positive reaction to the listing, he said, “tells us that investors are very interested in the fact that this is perhaps a pivotal moment for companies that are adopting these types of technologies and really moving into the future of capital markets…and how assets move from buyer to seller.” »
That future, Stevens added, includes Figure’s blockchain-centric approach to asset lending and settlement.
“All we’re saying is that our preferred method – and we think the market is buying into it – is to do it via a blockchain rail,” he said.
Technology, he told PYMNTS, enables efficiencies that traditional mortgage and lending markets struggle to match.
“You no longer need to have T+1, T+2 settlements. You can have atomic settlement. You don’t need to pass around spreadsheets to reconcile transactions,” he said.
