Figuring Out the Future with Figure

Why we’re spinning out Figure Markets

By Mike Cagney, co-founder and CEO, and June Ou, co-founder and President

 We’re excited to announce today the formation of Figure Markets (www.figuremarkets.com and Figure Markets), a spinout from Figure .  Figure Markets is pursuing the “Exchange for Everything” – a blockchain native, decentralized custody exchange for digital assets.  Figure is rebranding to Figure Technology Solutions and will continue to innovate in the private credit and capital markets spaces.  I will be CEO of both companies, and June will be President of Figure Markets and an advisor to Figure Technology Solutions.

 Figure has been a pioneer in using blockchain to facilitate efficiencies and opportunities in real-world-assets, having recorded over $30B in loan and securities transactions on chain.  We built Provenance Blockchain, a decentralized proof of stake blockchain that addresses issues of data control for use specifically in financial services.  Provenance is a public blockchain and operates independently of Figure.  Figure Markets is our effort to go even further, building a decentralized custody exchange for assets ranging from crypto to public equity to asset-backed-securities.

 The foundation of Figure Markets is a decentralized custody marketplace using a combination of multi-party computation (MPC) wallets and on-chain security perfection.  With MPC, Figure Markets doesn’t take possession of assets, but can offer cross collateralization and market leading netting and margining.  We are launching the onshore marketplace in April, and the offshore exchange later in Q2.  We have a steering committee of market makers and buy-side firms contributing time and effort in building out our marketplace, including providing the deep, two way liquid markets.  We want to capture what was great about, but never repeat the failures of, FTX.

 In addition to the exchange, Figure Markets will provide crypto-backed loans and asset management products that are native to blockchain.  Many users will be able to invest in a product like Figure Market’s REIT and use that to collateralize a trade in BTC.  We are also continuing our efforts to create the first interest-bearing stablecoin alternative registered with the SEC.

 We’ve secured over $60 million in a series A financing for Figure Markets, led by Jump Crypto, Pantera Capital and Lightspeed Faction with participation from Distributed Global, Ribbit Capital, CMT Digital and others.  We’re thrilled to have Dan Morehead join our board as part of this round.  We’re incredibly proud of this group of partners, each of which bring unique expertise to our business.  We collectively believe in the future of decentralized finance and are committed to capturing the real benefit of blockchain.

 We’ve been frustrated with the centralization of crypto trading, and surprised the market hasn’t demanded a change after the wave of crypto bankruptcies.  It’s unfortunate that the crypto community – emboldened by the spirit of democratization of finance – got burned by centralized bad actors.  We’ve tried to find ways to give back to that community, most recently in our bid to restart the FTX exchange, making creditors owners in Figure Markets.  While it looks like the debtors have abandoned that exchange restart, we believe there are ways we can accomplish the same outcome for those impacted by the bankruptcy.  We’re working through the logistics, but we intend to find a way to make the original FTX creditors owners in Figure Markets.  More on that to come in the coming weeks.

 We are thrilled about the opportunities that this spinoff creates for both Figure Markets and Figure Technology Solutions   The separation allows each company to be laser focused on their respective missions.  We’ve had a transformative first six years for Figure and can’t wait to execute on the next six in both companies.

 Find us at FigureMarkets.com and follow Figure Markets.

 Thanks

 Mike and June