Figure is bringing the mortgage market on chain

Go Figure.

Getting a mortgage has historically meant navigating one of the slowest, most paper-heavy processes in American finance — a maze of paperwork, middlemen and repeated handbook checks that can take months to finish.

But Figure, a fintech firm based in New York that went public in September, is rerouting the complete system by shifting it on-chain, making the course of each quicker and cheaper.

Origination can occur in 5 days — instead of the typical 45 — and prices roughly $1,000 instead of the common $12,000.

Michael Tannenbaum is the CEO of Figure. The fintech firm has originated practically $18 billion in mortgages and other real-world belongings since launch in 2018. Brian Zak/NY Post

“This is blockchain actually lowering costs and helping people,” CEO Michael Tannenbaum, 38, told NYNext. “This is the future of capital markets.”

In Washington and on Wall Street, momentum is growing to move antiquated financial infrastructure on-chain, the place possession is clear, standardized and immediately transferable. Few firms are doing that work at scale, however Figure — which has originated practically $18 billion in mortgages and other real-world belongings since launch in 2018 — is one of them. 

Michael Tannenbaum rings the Nasdaq opening bell as Figure makes its public debut in September 2025. Just six months prior, he got here aboard as CEO. REUTERS

Figure now accounts for roughly 75% of all loans being originated and recorded on the blockchain, a younger however fast-growing phase of the market often known as tokenization. More than 200 establishments — including JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Sixth Street, Jefferies, Guaranteed Rate and CrossCountry Mortgage — now use Figure’s infrastructure to originate, register and commerce loans; those merchandise are rated Triple-A by each S&P and Moody’s.

In the conventional mortgage system, every establishment has its own varieties, workflows and necessities. Each time a loan is purchased or bought, the course of successfully begins from scratch.

Figure eliminates the mishegoss by standardizing every thing. Instead of bespoke paperwork, every loan is created with the same data and documentation.

Figure’s online application streamlines the mortgage course of, permitting debtors to finish key steps and get funded in as little as 5 days. Figure

The company leverages AI to read complicated trust and LLC paperwork, extract the related data and write it on-chain in a tamper-proof digital document. Key particulars change into immediately seen and verifiable to any authorized purchaser, eradicating the back-and-forth that usually drags out approvals.

Because every loan follows the same digital construction, Figure can route them by way of a market of its own creation. 

Tannenbaum joined NYNext to inform Will Zimmerman about how the firm leverages blockchain technology to decrease mortgage prices. “This is the future of capital markets,” Tannenbaum said. Brian Zak/NY Post

“Almost like what the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq have done for equities, we’ve created standardization in this market for trading equities,” Tannenbaum said. “That didn’t exist prior to Figure.”

The public market has voted confidence, too. When Figure IPO’d this fall on the NASDAQ stock exchange, its shares have been priced at about $25 however opened nearer to $36 — the place they continue to commerce today. 

In its first earnings report, posted in November, Figure recorded $156 million in web income and practically $2.5 billion in consumer-loan market quantity for the quarter. Its year-over-year web income growth was more than 200%.

“The tailwinds from this administration have been helpful,” Tannenbaum said of new laws such as the proposed Genius Act for stablecoins, which indicators Washington’s rising perception in the blockchain as a official, long-term piece of financial market infrastructure.

“A year ago, if you talked about blockchain in a board meeting, you’d be laughed out of the room,” he continued. “Now, if you aren’t talking about it, there’s a serious problem.”

That institutional embrace has downstream effects for Wall Street and extraordinary debtors alike.

Figure’s digital pre-qualification display provides debtors fast readability on how a lot they will borrow and what loan construction suits their wants.

Using a new Figure tool, Intellidebt, debtors can repay high-interest bank card debt straight, changing charges in the 20t o 30% vary with home-equity charges that sometimes sit between 7% and 9%. 

Because Figure’s system is automated and standardized, owners can entry that equity in a matter of days. Tannenbaum said these clients are seeing their credit score scores boosted by as many as 30 factors in the course of.

From left, Figure’s co-founder June Ou, CEO Michael Tannenbaum and co-founder Mike Cagney pose for photos outdoors the Nasdaq building after ringing the opening bell to have fun the company’s IPO in September. REUTERS

When he stepped into the CEO position in April 2024, Tannenbaum introduced with him more than a decade of experience at SoFi and Brex — in addition to questions he had been wrestling with since his time as a scholar at Columbia during the financial disaster.

“One of the reasons I was so drawn to Figure is because I think blockchain technology can help with these issues we saw in 2008 around loan ownership,” he said. “The dislocation was the opportunity.”

This story is a component of NYNext, an indispensable insider insight into the innovations, moonshots and political chess strikes that matter most to NYC’s energy gamers (and those who aspire to be).

Home equity, though, is just the starting. The same infrastructure that streamlines mortgages and equity loans is already getting used to originate and commerce other varieties of credit score, from auto loans to small-business financing. Student-loan functions, too, are in testing.

“We see the entire capital market, private credit and beyond, as addressable with our technology,” Tannenbaum said. “It’s a $180 billion market — we’re just getting started.”

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