Figure’s Hastra Is Putting Car Loans On a Blockchain: Inside the Newest Push to Tokenize Everyday Credit
Blockchain-based lending giant Figure Technology Solutions and its on-chain credit platform Hastra are adding auto loans to their tokenized marketplace, a move that takes real-world credit beyond home equity and puts car financing directly onto a blockchain for decentralized finance investors.
The expansion, announced this week and shared with Cointelegraph, marks the first new asset class introduced to Democratized Prime, Figure’s decentralized lending marketplace on Figure Markets. In plain terms, a marketplace that once let DeFi investors fund home equity loans will now let them fund auto loans as well, with the loans issued, traded, and funded entirely on-chain.
Why this matters
Tokenized real-world assets have become one of the fastest-growing corners of the crypto industry, and credit is the biggest prize of all. Figure, led by CEO Michael Tannenbaum, says it has originated more than 22 billion USD in on-chain loans to date, and the company has been deliberately building toward a marketplace that can host multiple consumer credit categories in a single venue.
Auto loans are a logical next step. The market is enormous, consumer familiarity is high, and the infrastructure Figure already runs, from loan origination to credit evaluation, can be reused. For DeFi investors, the pitch is exposure to a familiar asset class with yields driven by real borrowers rather than token emissions.
How the rollout works
Figure launched Hastra in 2025 on Solana as an extension of its existing lending infrastructure. The platform uses Figure’s loan origination and credit systems to bring real-world assets on-chain for DeFi investors.
Now Hastra is expanding to Ethereum-compatible EVM chains to reach a larger segment of the DeFi ecosystem. A Figure spokesperson confirmed that Ethereum will be Hastra’s first EVM destination. The auto finance product will launch on Solana first, with an Ethereum rollout expected around June. Home equity loan exposure, currently available on Solana, will also be made accessible on the new EVM chains, according to CoinMarketCap’s report on the announcement.
Wall Street is watching closely
Analysts at Bernstein this month assigned Figure an Outperform rating with a 67 USD price target, nearly double its recent trading price. The firm cited growth in Figure’s tokenized lending business, with loan originations topping 1.2 billion USD in March and first-quarter volumes reaching 2.9 billion USD.
Figure went public on September 11, 2025, listing on the Nasdaq under the ticker FIGR. Its shares are down about 12 percent year to date, a reminder that being an early leader in tokenized credit does not guarantee a smooth ride for the stock.
The risks investors should understand
Adding consumer auto loans to a blockchain platform introduces risks that differ from those tied to home equity products. As CoinMarketCap’s report notes, non-prime auto loans carry higher default rates, particularly during periods of economic weakness. A car loan is not secured by a house, recovery values on repossessed vehicles can fall quickly in a downturn, and delinquencies in auto credit historically rise faster than in mortgages when household budgets tighten.
There are also open questions about how these credit products would be regulated and how they would perform under volatile market conditions. Tokenized credit sits at the intersection of securities law, consumer lending rules, and DeFi infrastructure, and the regulatory picture remains unsettled in key jurisdictions.
The bigger picture
The Hastra expansion is part of a broader shift in which blockchain infrastructure is being used to repack conventional finance rather than replace it. Tokenized Treasury funds, on-chain money market products, and now consumer auto credit all point in the same direction: the industry is competing on settlement speed, transparency, and round-the-clock trading rather than on ideology.
For DeFi investors, the arrival of auto loans on Hastra means one more way to diversify on-chain yield away from purely crypto-native collateral. For Figure, it is a test of whether its origination machine can scale beyond home equity into a much larger consumer market.
What to watch next
The June rollout on Ethereum will be the key milestone. If auto loan volume on Solana builds steadily and the EVM expansion arrives on schedule, Figure will have proof that its marketplace model can carry multiple asset classes. If delinquency data disappoints or regulation tightens, the same leverage that makes tokenized credit attractive will work in reverse.
For now, the message from Figure is confidence. The company has spent years building the plumbing, and with more than 22 billion USD in on-chain loans originated, it believes the marketplace is ready for a much broader menu of credit. Car loans are simply the first stop.
Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice. Crypto assets and tokenized credit products carry risk; do your own research before investing.
Figure keeps quietly building. First home equity on Hastra, now auto loans on Democratized Prime. The boring asset classes are exactly the ones that tokenize first.
Agreed on Figure, though I want to see how they handle repossession before calling this proven. Home equity has collateral you can sit on, a depreciating sedan is messier.
Repossession is the easy part honestly, deficiency balances get litigated for years. The on-chain part solves none of that.
repossession is where it gets real. a tokenized title doesnt make a borrower hand over the keys any faster
^ this. the whole pitch rests on loan level data being honest, and auto paper is where lenders hide the junk
as someone who did auto paper at a credit union: the junk hides in the FICO buckets and the servicing transfers. good luck tokenizing that honestly
this. every auto securitization pitch promises granular data on chain and then the delinquency feed still comes from the same servicer spreadsheet
this. the on-chain part covers the clean half of the book and the junk still gets sold in packets nobody audits
car loan yields on chain are gonna be like 6 percent and people will still act like it changed the world lol
Funded, issued and traded fully on-chain is the part people sleep on. That cuts settlement from days to minutes and the spread savings go somewhere.
22 billion originated on chain and somehow Figure still gets called niche. the boring credit rails are winning while everyone argues about memes
22b originated and the first thing people ask is when the token drops. the whole moat here is servicing infrastructure
first new asset class on democratized prime since launch and its auto paper. figure clearly thinks defi wants yield backed by hyundai payments, might be right
if the spread savings ever reach actual borrowers ill believe the revolution. first few quarters it goes straight to originator margins