Figure sells eNote mortgages as NFTs in blockchain marketplace

Figure Technologies announced that it has sold digital mortgages to an asset management giant using blockchain technology, a first-of-its-kind transaction the firm said reduces the time, risks and costs associated with traditional loan sales.

Figure originated and sold its eNote mortgages to asset management giant Apollo through Figure’s Provenance Blockchain marketplace, it said. The assets are in the form of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, and Apollo purchased the undisclosed volume of loans via a digital currency.

Figure registered its mortgages through its own lien and eNote registry system, Digital Asset Registration Technologies, or DART, the company’s alternative to MERS databases. Figure’s combined registry and blockchain technologies offer immediate and automated asset management, it claims.

DART and the Provenance Blockchain eliminate the need for duplicative registration of a loan in multiple MERS databases, according to Figure, and averts slow, risky trilateral settlements between originators, warehouse banks and investors.

“Blockchain can provide enhanced protections and transparency in the ownership process for consumers and real-time settlement for investors, replacing trust with truth to create a faster, more efficient process for everyone,” said Daniel Wallace, general manager of Figure Lending, in a press release.

Figure will service the loans, a spokesperson said.

Based in Charlotte, North Carolina, Figure was founded in 2018 by SoFi founder Mike Cagney and develops blockchain-based financial services, offering home loans, student loan refinancing and personal loans. The company is also in the midst of a merger with Homebridge Financial Services, a lender with a retail branch network and two third-party origination units.

The transaction is the latest introduction of blockchain in the mortgage business, as industry players large and small have experimented with the technology. Bay Area fintech Haus this month unveiled its HausCoin cryptocurrency allowing for home equity trading through blockchain technology.