FIGR_HELOC sits at the sharper end of the real-world asset (RWA) tokenisation trend, representing on-chain exposure to a pool of home-equity lines of credit (HELOCs) originated by Figure Technologies, the fintech lender co-founded by former SoFi chief executive Mike Cagney. Rather than a currency or a governance token, it's closer to a tokenised claim on consumer credit — an attempt to move a very traditional lending product onto blockchain rails.
What it does
Figure has originated tens of billions of dollars in HELOCs since 2018, using its own Provenance Blockchain to record loan data, ownership and transfer history in place of the paper-heavy processes typical of mortgage-adjacent lending. FIGR_HELOC packages exposure to these underlying loans into a tradable on-chain instrument via Figure Markets, with token holders positioned to receive a return linked to the interest income generated by the pool. The pitch is straightforward: blockchain settlement can cut the cost, time and friction of securitising and trading loan assets compared with traditional mortgage-backed paper, while giving investors a more liquid, more transparent way to hold what was previously an illiquid, opaque asset class.
It's a genuinely different kind of crypto asset from most on this list — its value isn't driven by network usage or speculative flows but by the credit performance of real homeowners paying down real debt, discounted for interest-rate expectations tied to typically floating HELOC rates.
Risks
This is an early-stage, thinly traded corner of the market compared with major-cap tokens, and liquidity can be shallow, meaning larger trades may face real slippage. Token holders are exposed to underlying credit risk: if borrowers in the pool default at scale, particularly in a housing downturn, returns suffer directly, unlike with a typical stablecoin or protocol token. The structure also depends heavily on Figure's own underwriting standards, loan servicing and the operational integrity of Provenance Blockchain — a far greater reliance on a single company's execution than is typical even among centralized-issuer stablecoins. Regulatory classification is also unsettled; tokenised credit instruments like this sit in a grey area that US securities regulators have not fully clarified, and rules could tighten how such products are offered and traded.
As RWA tokenisation gathers pace across private credit, treasuries and real estate, FIGR_HELOC is a useful bellwether for whether investors will actually treat tokenised consumer debt the way they treat other on-chain assets — with the same appetite for volatility, and the same tolerance for a young, unproven wrapper around an old asset class.