Blockchain lender Figure soars 30% after Nasdaq debut, nears $6 billion valuation

Founded in 2018, Figure’s business centers around putting mortgages on the blockchain, which the company says speeds up the granting and funding of home loans. From June 2024 to June of this year, it facilitated about $6 billion in loans, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. And from January to June, it generated more than $190 million in revenue and almost $30 million in net income.

“The IPO is one step in a long process to bring blockchain to all aspects of capital markets,” wrote Mike Cagney, cofounder and CEO of Figure, in a letter to investors in the company’s prospectus.

Figure’s Nasdaq debut comes amid a hot IPO market—especially for crypto companies. In June, the stablecoin issuer Circle went public in a blockbuster IPO that saw the company raise more than $1 billion and its market capitalization jump to a high of nearly $80 billion in late June before falling to now around $30 billion. 

After Circle’s success, other crypto companies piled into the public markets as cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum notched all-time highs. The crypto exchange Bullish, led by former president of the New York Stock Exchange Tom Farley, went public in August. Its market capitalization is about $8.5 billion. 

Others have signaled their intentions to IPO later this year. Gemini, the crypto exchange founded by Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, is set to list on the Nasdaq on Friday. Grayscale, a crypto-focused ETF issuer, confidentially filed for its IPO in July. And Kraken, another crypto exchange, has long been reported to be considering entering the public markets. 

Figure is the second public company Mike Cagney has founded. He is also the cofounder and former CEO of SoFi, which went public in 2021. Cagney left SoFi in 2017 after he became embroiled in a sexual harassment scandal. At a Fortune conference in 2024, Cagney acknowledged the drama and said he prioritized company culture when he founded Figure. 

“At SoFi, there were…deficiencies in our culture,” he said. “And so I think with Figure, it’s a maturing process. And, I expect I’ll leave Figure Markets even better than we were able to leave Figure, so I think we just constantly learn.”