Figure Says IPO Is a ‘Call Option’ on the Future of Finance

Figure Technology Solutions opened its first session as a publicly traded company with a strong rally, giving the FinTech a multibillion-dollar market capitalization and immediate attention from institutional investors. The early trading strength, as the shares surged 24% above the offer price by $31.11 a share at the close of trading, while welcome, is not the company’s primary focus.

“We have capital and we have to be good custodians of capital,” Todd Stevens, the firm’s chief capital officer, told PYMNTS as the stock surged towards its final hour of trading on Thursday (Sept. 11). 

The positive momentum out of the gate, he said, which raised about $787 million for the firm, “tells us that investors are very interested in this possibly being a pivotal moment around companies adopting these types of technologies and really driving toward the future of capital markets … and how assets travel from buyer to seller.”

Validation of Blockchain-Based Model

That future, he said, includes Figure’s blockchain-centered approach to lending and asset settlement. “All we’re saying is our preferred method — and we think the market’s coming along with this — is to do this across a blockchain rail,” he said.

The technology, he added, enables efficiencies that legacy mortgage and loan markets struggle to match. “You don’t have to have T+1, T+2 settlement anymore. You can have atomic settlement. You don’t have to pass around spreadsheets to reconcile trades,” he said.

The company operates a digital lien registry that records ownership changes instantly. “We don’t have to do assignments of mortgage anymore,” Stevens said. “Loan-on-blockchain moves from wallet A to wallet B, and the digital registry sees that and says, ‘OK, now this is the beneficial owner of that loan.’” 

That capability replaces weeks of paper processing with real-time verification and smart-contract execution. For investors, Stevens said, the public listing of Figure’s shares means “a call option on a lot of upside as the future of finance changes.”

Expanding Product Lines

Figure intends to deploy its IPO proceeds to extend well beyond its core home-equity and mortgage products. “We told our investors we think we’re sitting in front of a $185 billion revenue opportunity across consumer, across tokenization, and across stablecoins,” Stevens said. 

Figure has already recorded “probably 40% month-on-month growth” in crypto-backed lending, issuing over a thousand loans and approaching an estimated $100 million worth of those loans tied to bitcoin and ether collateral.

A proprietary, yield-bearing stablecoin adds another dimension. He noted that markets have rewarded stablecoin leaders such as Circle based on assets under management. “The market sees a massive addressable market there. We can play in that addressable market as well,” he said.

More immediately, while the IPO captured headlines, Stevens emphasized that macro conditions remain favorable. He expects front-end rates to decline as the Federal Reserve cuts, but said long-term yields are likely to remain stable enough to support origination.

“We’re kind of in this Goldilocks origination environment where we are able to lower our rates,” he said, citing second-lien rates that are more affordable and driving borrower demand. About 15% of Figure’s current production is first-lien mortgages, he told PYMNTS.

Asked about participation from the lending side of the equation, Stevens said institutional adoption depends on regulatory progress. “Without a doubt we need more regulatory clarity,” Stevens said. “The banks all want to come along; they just need more regulatory clarity, and that is the biggest obstacle.” 

He pointed to recent measures such as the GENIUS Act and the forthcoming CLARITY Act as steps in the right direction and said custodians are “moving at a very good pace” to address settlement requirements.

Three-Stage Flywheel

Beyond originating its own loans, Figure aims to serve as a marketplace operator for third-party lenders and investors. “We allow people to bring their underwriting guides to us,” Stevens said. “We’re automating those guides leveraging technology, AI, and then we’re piping that into our marketplace.” 

The model, which Stevens describes as a three-stage flywheel, begins with borrower origination, moves to warehouse financing — sourced from both traditional institutions and decentralized finance — and culminates in bulk sales through Figure Connect, the blockchain marketplace.

The next phase envisions outside investors bringing stablecoins to lend directly to borrowers. “That’s what we call Democratize Prime,” he said. “We’re trying to democratize access to prime brokerage,” likening the approach to Amazon’s platform that lets merchants plug into its logistics network.

Success will be measured by origination volume, take rate, and the breadth of adoption. “Obviously you need institutional adoption. We also need DeFi adoption,” Stevens said. “If we have 10 different products which aggregate into $2 billion a month in origination volume, and we get a 3% or 4% take rate, that’s the model.”

Near-Term Roadmap

The company plans to stay close to its core strengths while expanding. “The next couple weeks it’s going to be business as usual,” Stevens said. “We’re launching some new products and assessing the market for possibly inorganic solutions, but we’re going to work in markets where we can bring efficiencies.”

Stevens, a veteran of traditional finance, sees a fundamental shift in how banks view digital assets. “A year ago if I walked in and said here’s my digital asset strategy, you might have gotten fired,” he said. “Now if you walk in and you don’t have a digital asset strategy at any bank, you might be fired.” 

He expects the pace of change to remain high: “Even if we stay at the same velocity of change over the next 12 months, you’re going to see a very different landscape.  We want to be at the forefront of that.”

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