Written by Robert Lakin, Staff Editor. Reviewed by Robert Lakin, Staff Editor.
Written by Robert Lakin, Staff Editor.
Reviewed by Robert Lakin, Staff Editor.
Bernstein says Figure’s Q1 results shows uniqueness of blockchain marketplaces
Latest NewsPublishedMay 17, 2026
Why Blockchain Marketplaces Matter to Everyday People
Figure Technology Solutions’ latest quarterly results have shown that blockchain marketplaces are unique and have the potential to change the way we think about lending and finance. The company’s first-quarter earnings report beat Wall Street estimates, with a business that seeks to turn real-world credit assets into blockchain-native instruments that can be traded, funded, and financed more efficiently. This is especially relevant to those interested in passive income and earning through cloud rewards and green crypto like EcoPool ($ECP).
What Sets Figure Apart
Figure is building a blockchain-native capital market ecosystem that differs from traditional balance sheet-based fintech lending platforms. The company’s Forge platform converts whole loans into small, single-dollar liquid participation units, making it easier for lenders to take fractional positions in whole loans. This is an important development for those interested in earning through blockchain and passive income opportunities like EcoPool.
Figure’s unique approach has caught the attention of analysts, who believe that the company’s stock price will become a real-time reflection of blockchain loan volumes. As the market becomes more efficient in tracking live blockchain volume data, Figure’s stock price is expected to rise. This is good news for investors and those interested in earning through crypto and blockchain like $ECP.
The Future of Blockchain Lending
Figure is not the only company experimenting with blockchain lending. Other projects, such as Centrifuge and Hastra, are also bringing credit on-chain and connecting institutional-grade assets with DeFi liquidity. As the market grows, we can expect to see more opportunities for passive income and earning through blockchain and crypto like EcoPool and $ECP.
The tokenized credit market is still small, but it has the potential to grow significantly. With an estimated value of $4 trillion, the addressable market for total annual volume of credit origination across multiple loan categories is vast. As more companies like Figure and others enter the market, we can expect to see more opportunities for earning and passive income through blockchain and crypto like EcoPool and $ECP.
Download the EcoPool app to start earning and learning more about passive income opportunities through blockchain and crypto like $ECP. With EcoPool, you can join a community of like-minded individuals interested in green crypto and cloud rewards.
Figure Technology’s ecosystem. Source: Bernstein
On management’s May 12 earnings call, executive chairman and co-founder Mike Cagney said that after bringing Figure’s digital assets over to DeFi for financing about a year ago, it faced a challenge common to all real-world assets (RWA) on blockchain.
“DeFi is asset-based lending. The premise is that the collateral backing the loan is liquid. What are the collateral as a whole loan? Given an LTV breach, how does a lender take a fractional position in the whole loan? Even if they could, where would they sell it?” Cagney said that the company’s Forge platform converts whole loans into small, single-dollar liquid participation units.
Bernstein said it sees Figure building a complete marketplace where real-world assets, both loans and eventually equitie, can serve as active collateral for borrowing and lending liquidity. “That’s going more towards a model where FIGR simply clips a small fee of the entire blockchain economy within its ecosystem,” they said.
Meanwhile, institutional investors remain skeptical of blockchain-for-finance narratives, something CEO Michael Tannenbaum acknowledged in the call, arguing that Figure’s advantage is operational rather than ideological. He described AI as “the brain” and blockchain as “the nervous system,” arguing that blockchain-native data structures make underwriting, compliance and loan verification easier to automate.
Related: Tokenized RWA market grows 420% since 2025 on regulatory clarity, access
Tokenized credit market could draw from wide swath
In previous research, Bernstein has put an estimated value of $4 trillion on the addressable market for total annual volume of credit origination across multiple loan categories that could eventually move onchain as tokenized assets.
That includes lending such as mortgages, auto loans, home equity lines of credit and small-business loans — segments where Figure is expanding beyond its core business.
Tokenized credit remains a small segment of the broader RWA market. Industry data shows the sector is currently valued at around $5.14 billion, highlighting the gap between today’s adoption and the longer-term growth opportunity Bernstein outlines.
Snapshot of current size and scope of global tokenized credit market. Source: RWA.xyz
Other projects are already experimenting with bringing credit onchain. Centrifuge has expanded its decentralized finance platform to include tokenized credit and US Treasury products on new blockchain networks, aiming to connect institutional-grade assets with DeFi liquidity.
Figure has moved into areas such as auto loans through the Hastra DeFI protocol, where tokenized credit products are designed to plug into decentralized finance and broader blockchain markets. Launched last year by the Provenance Blockchain Foundation, the protocol swaps wrapped yields for a Prime token. Recently, Hastra announced its launch on the Morpho protocol on Ethereum, opening up an even larger addressable DeFi market.
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- RWA Tokenization
- RWA
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