Figure Debuts Tokenized Stock on Its OPEN Network

Figure is reportedly introducing a tokenized class of stock that trades on blockchain rails.

Company officials told Coindesk Thursday (Feb. 19) that Figure’s FGRD token will be available on its Onchain Public Equity Network (OPEN), and issued, traded and settled without using traditional Wall Street clearing and custody systems.

Instead, FGRD transactions are recorded and finalized directly on a blockchain, which the company says allows for faster execution and programmable compliance.

“Public equity still runs on decades-old market plumbing, and it simply doesn’t make sense anymore,” Mike Cagney, executive chairman of Figure, told the news outlet.

“By issuing FGRD natively onchain, we’re re-architecting the core infrastructure of capital markets to be real-time, transparent, and programmable, while removing layers of intermediaries that add cost, risk, and friction,” he added.

Figure launched OPEN last month, announcing that it aimed to be the first issuer to use the network, having filed the public registration statement to do so last fall.

“OPEN reinvents equity trading,” Cagney said at the time. “The significant benefits over the centralized incumbent model incent companies to use OPEN and their investors demand it. After originating over $20 billion in on-chain credit, we’re now excited to bring public equity to Provenance Blockchain.”

In examining the tokenization marketplace earlier this month, PYMNTS wrote that there was a “more complicated reality” emerging in parallel with the “conceptually linear” pitch put forth by the industry.

“The technology behind asset tokenization largely works as advertised,” the report said. “Public blockchains run 24/7 and settlement finality is measured in minutes, sometimes seconds. Custody tooling has matured, and institutional-grade infrastructure exists.”

However, liquidity is still elusive for most tokenized real-world assets. Volumes are thin, bid-ask spreads are wide, and exits are often determined by issuer discretion and legal processes that sit off chain.

Many of the top 10 tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) by value are commodity-backed stablecoin instruments and not the kind of financial derivatives tokenized markets depend on to scale, the report said.

“For CFOs and treasury teams evaluating tokenized RWAs as part of their liquidity, yield, or balance-sheet strategy, the central lesson is that ‘on-chain’ is not synonymous with ‘liquid,’ and that many tokenized RWAs can behave far more like private instruments than tradable securities,” PYMNTS wrote.