TL;DR

• Massive untapped market: U.S. homeowners are sitting on $11.5 trillion in accessible home equity that can be borrowed against without touching their low-rate mortgages from the pre-2022 era.

• Figure Technology Solutions' blockchain revolution: Figure Technology Solutions has built the largest non-bank HELOC (home equity line of credit) operation using blockchain technology, reducing loan processing from 42 days to under 5 days and costs from $11,230 to $730 per loan through complete automation.

• Institutional validation:
  Figure Technology Solutions has completed over 10 rated securitizations with AAA ratings from major agencies, holds 75% market share in private credit tokenization, and has facilitated $6 billion in home equity lending with consistently low credit losses around 1%.

• DeFi opportunity via NUVA: NUVA’s permissionless nuHELOC vault brings Figure Technology Solution and its partners’ institutional‑grade HELOC exposure into DeFi (decentralized finance), with composable tokens, meaning users can move nuHELOC tokens across supported DeFi ecosystems and chains to access DEX liquidity, post as loan collateral, and more.

• Perfect timing: High home values and homeowners reluctant to refinance their low-rate mortgages have created ideal conditions for HELOC growth, positioning this as a major asset class migration opportunity..

Introduction

American homeowners are sitting on a goldmine they can't easily access. With mortgage rates locked in at historic lows from the pre-2022 era, for many homeowners refinancing their primary mortgage isn't an option. But there's another way to tap into home equity without disturbing those sweet 2-3% rates, and it's being revolutionized through blockchain technology in ways that most DeFi natives haven't even discovered yet.

As traditional borrowing costs have remained elevated, homeowners have increasingly turned to their equity as their preferred liquidity source. We're talking about Home Equity Lines of Credit, better known as HELOCs, and the numbers are staggering. Intercontinental Exchange estimates roughly $11.5 trillion in tappable equity sitting in U.S. homes right now. That's equity homeowners can borrow against while maintaining their ownership stakes. To put this in perspective, that's more than the entire crypto market cap at its peak.

What is a HELOC?

A HELOC is essentially a personal loan backed by your house. Predominantly an American financial instrument, it lets you borrow against the equity you've built up in your property without having to sell or touch that primary mortgage. This matters today because many U.S. homeowners are sitting on mortgage rates between 2-3% from the pre-2022 era, and refinancing now would mean ditching those rates for rates double or triple what they're currently paying. 

Leveraged since the 1970s, the beauty of HELOCs becomes obvious when you consider the post-2020 explosion in home values. Homeowners who bought before the madness are sitting on large equity gains, and HELOCs provide direct access to that wealth without breaking their existing mortgage structure. Whether you're funding home improvements, consolidating high-interest debt, making investments, or just need liquidity for opportunities, a HELOC gives you that flexibility while preserving the low-rate mortgage that's become your biggest financial advantage. It's liquidity on demand, backed by an often appreciating asset.

The scale of this market is absolutely mind-blowing. U.S. homeowners are carrying a record $17.6 trillion in home equity as of Q2 2025, with $11.5 trillion of that considered "tappable" - available for borrowing while maintaining at least 20% ownership stakes. As traditional borrowing costs have remained elevated, homeowners have increasingly turned to their equity as their preferred liquidity source. The 2024 numbers tell the story: $24.8 billion in HELOC originations with a staggering $167.4 billion in maximum credit extended to borrowers. That's not just a lending market - that's a massive asset class that's been completely underutilized by the broader financial ecosystem, especially DeFi.

Figure Technology Solutions's HELOC Revolution

While most RWAs (real-world assets) have been slow to come on-chain, Figure Technology Solutions has been quietly building the largest non-bank HELOC operation in the United States. Their digital-native approach isn't just incrementally better than traditional lending—it's a complete reimagining of how mortgage markets should work.

The old system was broken by design. Industry median time from application to funding? A brutal 42 days. Figure Technology Solutions' proprietary Loan Origination System has compressed that timeline to under 5 days. The application process that used to require multiple meetings, stacks of paperwork, and weeks of back-and-forth now takes as little as five minutes to complete online.

The cost savings are even more dramatic. Traditional mortgage industry averages run about $11,230 per loan according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. Figure Technology Solutions has driven that number down to approximately $730 through complete automation. 

But here's what makes Figure Technology Solutions's approach truly revolutionary: everything happens on the Provenance Blockchain. Every loan is tokenized from origination, creating an immutable record of ownership and transfer history.

The Numbers Behind the Machine

Figure Technology Solutions's underwriting isn't just automated, important to NUVA users, it's conservative by design. Minimum FICO scores of 640, maximum combined loan-to-value ratios of 85%, and debt-to-income caps at 50%. For the six months ending June 30, 2025, less than 0.1% of their originations went to subprime borrowers with FICO scores below 620.  For those less familiar, FICO is a widely used U.S. credit scoring model that ranges between 300-850, used to assess a consumer's creditworthiness by predicting the likelihood of paying bills on time. 

The results speak for themselves. Figure Technology Solutions’ launched its on‑chain loan‑origination platform in July 2018. As of June 30, 2025, credit losses on Figure Technology Solutions-underwritten loans have consistently stayed around 1% or less, well below the 6% that rating agencies typically assume for similar securitizations. That's the result of programmable underwriting that removes human error and bias from the equation.

The growth trajectory is equally impressive. Figure Technology Solutions facilitated approximately $6 billion in home equity lending over the twelve months ending June 30, 2025, representing 29% year-over-year growth. But here's the kicker: partner-originated volume now dwarfs Figure Technology Solutions's own branded originations, with $2.4 billion in partner volume versus $750 million Figure Technology Solutions-branded in the first half of 2025.

Over 170 third parties are using Figure Technology Solutions's technology to originate loans on-chain, including half of the top 20 retail mortgage shops. Major players like Guaranteed Rate, Movement Mortgage, and CMG Financial have integrated Figure Technology Solutions's infrastructure into their operations. Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, Deutsche Bank, and Texas Capital are all using Figure Technology Solutions's DART platform for loan registration and tracking.

Institutional Validation Through Securitization

The institutional world has taken notice in a big way. Figure Technology Solutions has completed over 10 rated securitizations with AAA ratings from both S&P and DBRS Morningstar. In July 2025, they achieved an industry first with S&P's AAA rating for a $355 million HELOC securitization, with all six bond classes ranging from AAA to B- receiving ratings.

Previous securitizations have shown similar institutional confidence. For example, in July 2024, Morningstar assigned credit ratings to Figure Technology Solutions Securitization Series 2024-HE3, including $275.4 million Class A at AAA. Even earlier, in June 2023, Figure Technology Solutions closed its first-rated securitization led by Jefferies, Goldman Sachs, and J.P. Morgan, with Morningstar assigning AAA ratings to the Class A Notes.

The Institutional market response has been consistently strong. More than 30 unique investors participated in the most recent transaction, including insurance companies, money managers, and credit funds. Every bond class was oversubscribed during the sale process, proving that institutional appetite for blockchain-native assets is real and growing.

Figure Technology Solutions now holds 75% market share in private credit tokenization according to RWA.xyz, and Figure Technology Solutions is saving 117 basis points through the entire loan lifecycle from origination to securitization. When you're dealing with billions in volume, those efficiency gains compound rapidly.

Where NUVA Fits In

Figure Technology Solutions has proven that blockchain can solve inefficiencies that have plagued traditional financial markets for decades. The infrastructure works, the regulatory framework is solid, and institutional adoption is accelerating. But there's still a massive opportunity to make these assets available to DeFi.

This is exactly where NUVA creates value. NUVA’s permissionless, composable vault structure (enabling vault tokens to be used across DeFi) connects institutional-grade assets like Figure Technology Solutions's HELOCs to native DeFi liquidity through its nuHELOC vault.

The composability factor is crucial, it enables NUVA vault tokens to plug into supported DeFi ecosystems for liquidity, collateral, and strategy integrations. Unlike Figure Technology Solutions Markets’ Democratized Prime and traditional HELOCs, which lock up capital in illiquid positions, NUVA vaults make these assets portable across DeFi protocols, usable as collateral, and combinable with other yield strategies. You get the stability and transparency of blockchain-native real estate debt with the flexibility and accessibility of DeFi infrastructure.

The Bigger Opportunity

With $11.5 trillion in tappable home equity and Figure Technology Solutions's proven ability to scale blockchain-native origination, we're looking at the early stages of a massive asset class migration. The combination of low mortgage rates keeping homeowners from refinancing and high home values creating unprecedented equity positions has created perfect conditions for HELOC growth.

NUVA aims to capture value as this migration accelerates. By making Figure Technology Solutions's institutional-grade HELOC products accessible to the broader DeFi ecosystem, we're not just expanding distribution, we're creating entirely new use cases for real-world asset exposure.

The infrastructure is proven. The assets are performing. The institutional validation is complete. Now it's time to make these opportunities accessible to everyone who's been waiting for DeFi to deliver real-world yield without the traditional gatekeeping. That's what tokenized HELOCs represent, and that's what NUVA is unlocking.