Figure and Hastra Push Tokenized Credit Into Auto Loans, Scaling Real-World Assets Beyond Home Equity

Figure and Hastra are making a calculated expansion into the auto lending market, bringing real-world assets (RWAs) deeper into DeFi infrastructure. The move signals confidence that tokenized consumer credit can scale beyond its current home equity focus—but it also imports new risks into an ecosystem still testing its resilience.

Broadening the RWA Playground

Democratized Prime, Figure's decentralized lending marketplace on Figure Markets, is now accepting auto loans as its first new asset class. This is a deliberate step in building a full-stack marketplace where different consumer credit products can be issued, traded, and funded entirely onchain.

"We've been purposefully building toward this," Figure CEO Michael Tannenbaum told Cointelegraph. The company has already originated over $22 billion in onchain loans, suggesting they've built the infrastructure to handle new asset types. The auto finance product will debut on Solana before rolling out to Ethereum around June.

Cross-Chain Expansion Sets Stage for Scale

Hastra, Figure's RWA platform launched in 2025, is simultaneously expanding beyond Solana into Ethereum-compatible (EVM) chains. Starting with Ethereum, this cross-chain rollout brings Hastra's existing credit system—including home equity loan exposure—to a much larger DeFi ecosystem and broader investor base.

The dual strategy makes sense: introduce new assets (auto loans) while simultaneously accessing new liquidity pools through EVM expansion. It's a calculated play to capture both product diversification and geographic network effects.

The Risk Equation Nobody's Ignoring

Here's where things get messier. Non-prime auto loans carry structurally higher default rates, especially during economic downturns. Tokenizing these assets doesn't eliminate the underlying credit risk—it just moves it onchain. Questions around regulation, transparency, and how these products perform under market stress remain largely unanswered.

The crypto market has seen tokenized RWAs treated as risk-free assets, which they decidedly are not. Auto loan portfolios with subprime characteristics could perform poorly in volatile conditions, and that volatility could cascade through DeFi protocols holding these assets.

Market Signals and Analyst Confidence

Figure's stock is down 12% year-to-date, but Bernstein analysts recently threw a bullish flag, assigning the company an "Outperform" rating with a $67 price target—nearly double recent trading levels. That optimism rests on real momentum: Q1 loan originations hit $2.9 billion, with March alone pulling in $1.2 billion.

The company went public on Nasdaq (FIGR) in September 2025, and institutional investors appear convinced the tokenized lending thesis has legs.