CEO Mike Cagney on How Figure Markets Is Bringing Real Assets and Public Stocks to DeFi

Figure Markets is building more than a trading platform—it’s creating a full-stack marketplace where origination, lending, and real-world asset exposure connect in a single system.

In this exclusive Q&A, CEO Mike Cagney explains how Figure is bringing traditional financial products onto blockchain rails and why composability could be the missing piece in DeFi’s next evolution.

BeInCrypto: You’ve positioned Figure Markets as the DeFi platform for all things crypto. What’s the core thesis tying together the exchange, high-yield vaults, Demo Prime, and crypto-backed loans into a single ecosystem?

Mike Cagney: We’re building a vertically integrated loop where assets are originated, traded, financed, and recycled without ever leaving Figure Markets. 

Near-term, that will start with Figure’s own HELOC production: loans are minted on Provenance, listed on Figure Markets for secondary trading, and can be pledged into borrow-and-lend vaults so users can either earn yield or lever into other assets. 

Over time we could originate a wider spectrum—consumer loans, equipment leases, even tokenized equities—so capital can flow friction-free: raise liquidity against a HELOC portfolio at 8 %, swap into BTC or Apple stock, stake those for more credit, and do it all inside one wallet, one margin engine, one rules-based ledger.

BeInCrypto: Your Forward Vaults offer 3.8% to 7% APY even in bear markets. Where do these yields come from—and how do you ensure they’re sustainable in volatile conditions?

Mike Cagney: The floor yield is the pass-through on YLDS, our SEC-qualified stablecoin that simply sweeps the Fed’s overnight rate (SOFR) minus 50 bps (our cut), so it moves with policy rather than crypto sentiment. 

The upper band is driven by cash flows from Figure’s HELOC book—prime-quality liens that historically price 250–350 bps above SOFR. Because the pools hold real loan coupons instead of protocol rewards, revenue doesn’t evaporate when token prices swing; loan interest keeps accruing and users have access to it in one form or another.

BeInCrypto: With Demo Prime, users can lend directly to each other and earn up to 12% returns. How do you manage trust and risk in a peer-to-peer structure without central intermediaries?

Mike Cagney: Every loan is over-collateralized, wrapped in an auditable smart contract, and tied to real-time oracles that trigger margin calls the instant LTV thresholds breach; collateral is custodied in MPC wallets so neither counterparty can run off with funds. 

Because all positions, collateral values, and liquidations are visible on-chain, users don’t rely on our balance sheet—they rely on math and code they can verify block-by-block.

BeInCrypto: You’ve said Figure will be the first platform to let users buy public stocks like Apple and Tesla on-chain using crypto. Walk us through the mechanism—are users actually owning the underlying equity?

Mike Cagney: Yes. Phase one uses ADRs/GDRs issued with a major custody bank; the depository warehouse holds the native shares, and tokenized receipts trade 1:1 on Figure Markets with full redemption rights, so you can swap the token for the underlying share at any time. 

Phase two is even cleaner: direct on-chain listings executed under existing ’33 Act exemptions, settled through our SEC-regulated ATS, letting investors hold native equity on Provenance. Either route delivers real, enforceable ownership, arbitrageable against off-chain venues and reflected in shareholder records.  Neither route is an IOU, which the industry has been rife with.

BeInCrypto: Tokenized equities live in a legal gray zone. How is Figure navigating the regulatory front, especially when blending DeFi primitives with real-world public securities?

Mike Cagney: We took the regulated path first: Figure Markets operates an Alternative Trading System and partners only with SEC-registered transfer agents and qualified custodians. ADRs, GDRs, and forthcoming direct listings all sit inside this framework, so the tokens are just digitized representations of securities that already comply with U.S. securities law; smart contracts handle settlement, but the legal wrapper is identical to what institutional desks trade every day. This is very different than all tokenized stocks that have been traded on chain today.

BeInCrypto: You’ve been a long-time advocate for asset tokenization. In your view, what will tokenization unlock for capital markets that legacy infrastructure simply can’t deliver?

Mike Cagney: It strips out the rent-seeking middle layers—clearing brokers, transfer agents, reconciliation desks—and replaces them with transparent, programmable settlement that closes in seconds instead of days. That unlocks real-time cross-asset collateralization (margin your HELOC tokens against Tesla equity), global 24/7 liquidity, and a shared auditable ledger that regulators and counterparties can query in one click, slashing systemic opacity and capital costs simultaneously.

BeInCrypto: You’ve already built in TradFi with SoFi. Why bet big on DeFi now—and what would ‘success’ look like for Figure Markets by the end of 2025?

Mike Cagney: Smart contracts deliver the scalability, transparency, and composability that legacy rails can’t—truth beats trust at global scale. By December 2025, we expect multiple asset classes—loans, treasuries, blue-chip stocks, Bitcoin, stablecoins—trading and cross-collateralizing natively on Figure Markets, with billions in TVL rotating through Demo Prime vaults.

Success is a user seamlessly pledging a tokenized HELOC at breakfast, going long ETH by lunch, and settling a Tesla equity trade before dinner—no banks, no T+2, just one ledger humming in real time.

Figure Markets’ products are already live for users looking to explore the next generation of blockchain-based finance.To start trading or access crypto-backed lending, visit Figure Markets’ Crypto Exchange or explore Crypto-Backed Loans.