Figure Technology Takes Aim at America’s Mortgage Giants with Blockchain Innovation

A Bold Challenge to the Established Order

The mortgage industry, long dominated by government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, is facing a potentially disruptive challenger. Figure Technology Solutions, led by Mike Cagney—the former CEO of financial technology company SoFi—has announced ambitious plans to compete directly in the first-lien mortgage market using blockchain technology. Speaking at the Consensus Miami conference, Cagney made a striking claim that cuts to the heart of why his company believes it can succeed where traditional systems have become entrenched: Figure’s blockchain platform can originate mortgages for just $1,000, compared to a staggering $11,000 through the government-sponsored enterprises. This nearly eleven-fold cost advantage isn’t just about saving money—it represents a fundamental reimagining of how mortgage lending could work in the digital age. The first-lien market that Figure is targeting dwarfs the company’s current business, being approximately 25 times larger than its existing second-lien home equity line of credit (HELOC) operations. For context, first-lien mortgages are the primary loans secured by a property, the kind most Americans think of when they buy a home, while second-lien products like HELOCs are additional loans taken against home equity. By moving into this massive market, Figure is positioning itself not as a niche player but as a potential game-changer in how Americans finance home purchases.

Speed and Efficiency: Reimagining the Mortgage Experience

Anyone who has gone through the traditional mortgage process knows it can be exhausting. The seemingly endless paperwork, the weeks of waiting, and the anxiety of wondering whether approval will come through have become accepted parts of homebuying in America. Figure’s value proposition goes beyond just cost savings to address this pain point directly. According to the company, HELOC applications receive approval in just five minutes, and loans fund within three days. Compare that to the industry standard of 30 to 45 days, and the appeal becomes immediately clear. Imagine being able to make a competitive offer on a home with confidence that your financing will be in place within days rather than over a month—it could fundamentally change how home purchases happen. This speed advantage comes from Figure’s blockchain infrastructure, which automates many of the verification and processing steps that traditionally require manual review and coordination between multiple parties. The platform also addresses another critical need for mortgage originators: certainty about where to sell the loans they create. Just as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac provide a guaranteed secondary market for conventional mortgages, Figure’s platform promises to be a reliable buyer for loans originated through its system, giving lenders confidence and liquidity.

Targeting the Underserved Middle Market

Figure’s strategy isn’t to compete across the entire mortgage spectrum but to focus where the traditional system works least efficiently. Cagney specifically identified mortgages under $300,000 as the company’s target market, explaining that the fee structures supporting smaller loans simply don’t work economically at the cost levels that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac operate. This is a crucial insight into a real problem in American housing finance: the smaller loans that might help first-time buyers or those in lower-cost markets often don’t receive the same attention or favorable terms as larger mortgages because they’re less profitable for lenders operating with high overhead costs. By dramatically reducing origination costs, Figure could potentially make these smaller mortgages more attractive to lenders while simultaneously offering better terms to borrowers. The company’s existing HELOC business already works with 308 partner originators, providing a foundation of relationships and operational experience to build upon. This focus on the sub-$300,000 segment isn’t just smart business strategy—it addresses a genuine market need and could have meaningful social impact by improving access to mortgage credit for buyers who have historically been underserved by the traditional system.

The Crypto Controversy: What’s Really On-Chain?

Figure’s expansion plans come with a side of controversy that highlights ongoing debates in the cryptocurrency and blockchain world about what truly constitutes decentralized, on-chain activity. Cagney claimed that Figure’s HELOC tokens have become the ninth-largest crypto asset on public blockchain by market value, a milestone the company reportedly passed about six weeks before his Consensus Miami appearance. However, this claim sits at the center of a significant dispute about transparency and what counts as genuinely on-chain activity. 0xngmi, the founder of DeFiLlama—a respected data aggregator in the decentralized finance space—pushed back hard against Figure’s assertions in a September article. He argued that Figure’s claimed $12 billion in tokenized real-world assets isn’t actually visible in any meaningful sense on Provenance, the blockchain network affiliated with Figure. His investigation found only about $5 million in Bitcoin, $4 million in Ethereum on Figure’s exchange, and $20 million in YLDS stablecoin supply that could be verified. DeFiLlama tracks Figure’s total value locked at approximately $140 million and has refused to count the larger figures the company claims. This dispute matters because transparency and verifiability are supposed to be core advantages of blockchain technology—if the assets aren’t genuinely visible and verifiable on-chain, critics argue, then the blockchain implementation may be more marketing than substance. It’s a reminder that in the emerging world of tokenized real-world assets, standards and verification methods are still being established and contested.

Following the Money: Figure’s Business Transformation

Beyond the technological claims and crypto controversies, Figure’s financial trajectory tells a story of strategic transformation. The company has deliberately shifted away from balance-sheet lending—where the company keeps loans on its own books—toward a marketplace model where it facilitates transactions between borrowers and investors. This pivot has had dramatic effects on profitability. Figure’s adjusted EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) margin improved from 30% to 55% in 2025, and Cagney projected it could reach 80-85% within the next one to two years. These are exceptional margins for a financial services company and reflect the low marginal cost of operating a digital platform once it’s built. Revenue growth has been strong as well, rising from $339 million in 2024 to $510 million in 2025, with sell-side analysts estimating $650 to $680 million for 2026. Perhaps most significantly, Figure crossed $1 billion in monthly originations for the first time in March—a psychological and practical milestone that demonstrates the platform has achieved meaningful scale. The marketplace model makes business sense for a company with technological infrastructure advantages: rather than taking on credit risk by holding loans, Figure can focus on what it does best—providing a more efficient origination and transaction platform—while passing the loans through to investors who want the credit exposure.

Building the Future: Integration and Expansion

Looking forward, Figure is working to position itself at the intersection of traditional finance and the emerging decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem. Cagney announced that the company is in discussions with ConsenSys’ MetaMask—one of the most widely used cryptocurrency wallets—to integrate Democratized Prime, Figure’s DeFi protocol for lending against on-chain mortgage and auto collateral. If successful, this integration could bring mortgage-backed lending into the broader DeFi ecosystem, potentially creating new liquidity sources and lending opportunities. The company is also expanding access to its own equity through OPEN, Figure’s blockchain-native equity trading venue. Figure announced a second listing on this platform for FIGR shares, alongside a $150 million secondary offering. This represents another dimension of the company’s vision: not just using blockchain for mortgages, but reimagining capital markets infrastructure more broadly. Whether Figure can deliver on its ambitious vision to compete with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac remains to be seen—these government-sponsored enterprises have massive scale, deep relationships throughout the mortgage industry, and implicit government backing that provides confidence to investors. However, the fundamental value proposition is compelling: if Figure can genuinely originate mortgages at a fraction of traditional costs while maintaining quality and speed, it could carve out a significant position in the market, particularly in segments that are currently underserved. The mortgage industry has long been ripe for technological disruption, and Figure’s attempt represents one of the most ambitious efforts yet to apply blockchain technology to solve real problems in traditional finance.