Figure's Home Equity Line of Credit token, known as Figure Heloc, has surged to become the tenth-largest cryptocurrency by market size, exceeding $15 billion. However, the token faces criticism for its limited onchain activity and liquidity. Supporters defend it as a legitimate real-world asset on the blockchain.
Figure, a fintech company specializing in home equity loans, has seen its proprietary token, Figure Heloc, climb to prominence in the cryptocurrency rankings. Representing loans secured against real estate on the Provenance blockchain, the token's value has grown to more than $15 billion in recent months, securing its spot as the tenth-largest crypto asset on trackers like CoinGecko. This places it alongside established tokens such as Cardano's ADA and Dogecoin, which boast $16 billion in market cap.
Critics, however, question its inclusion in these rankings. They point to the token's minimal onchain usage and low liquidity as reasons it does not align with more active cryptocurrencies. In September, 0xngmi, the pseudonymous head of data provider DefiLlama, expressed skepticism: “We’re unsure how $12 billion in assets are being traded when there are so few assets in the chain to trade them against.” He further wondered, “As it seems that a majority of holders are not transferring these assets with their keys, are they just mirroring their own internal database into the chain?”
Such concerns highlight broader issues in tokenizing real-world assets (RWAs), where entities could issue tokens backed by offchain holdings without genuine blockchain trading. Figure CEO Mike Cagney countered the backlash, asserting that the loans are actively traded on Provenance and now serve as collateral in Figure Markets. “While they aren’t BTC, they are assets on a public chain,” he stated.
This development coincides with rising interest in RWAs, with DefiLlama reporting over $17 billion in circulation and RWA.xyz estimating more than $23 billion. Figure positions its blockchain approach as a way to enhance liquidity for traditionally illiquid assets like loans. As Cagney noted in a September letter, “By taking historically illiquid assets—such as loans—and putting these assets and their performance history onchain, blockchain can bring liquidity to markets that have never had such.”
In response to the debate, RWA.xyz has refined its categorization since September, distinguishing between distributed and represented assets. Figure Heloc falls into the latter group, similar to Broadridge DLR, which manages $350 billion in onchain RWAs. Adam Lawrence, co-founder of RWA.xyz, commented on X: “We’re cooking up new metrics to show the nuance on things like Tradable and Figure. They’re legitimate, institutionally-focused companies that will ultimately drive a majority of volume in crypto.”