Mike Cagney 🇺🇸

I agree that wrapping DTCC equity is dumb. Native equity issued on chain is the only way this makes any sense, but the DeFi ecosystem needs to support those securities and that's problematic givne the transfer agent restrictions. So while we own a TA, we aren't participating in this lobbying of the SEC. Instead I'm trying to get them to relax their TA requirements - allowing for wallet address in lieu of name and address. Some in the SEC agree with me. Some, not so much. But Clarity might make that moot...

Thoughts? @mcagney

@CardiCNBC We have over 400 third part partners today in the lending ecosystem - and growing.

As part of this effort, I'm looking to fill a few roles on this team. DM me if you or someone you know would be a fit. Biz Dev 1 - looking for someone to sell the white label version of this application into financial services/fintech companies. You are bringing a safe and familiar way for their customers to access the unique yield and trading opportunities in DeFi, in either a stand alone form or components fitting into existing apps. Biz Dev 2 - looking for someone to build connection to various DeFi players in lending, trading, etc. Rather than using the wallet to log onto third party protocols, you are bringing third party functionality into the wallet. Compliance - looking for someone who can bridge tradfi and defi KYC/AML, fraud, licensing compliance, etc. You are going to become a cutting edge AI user, bringing new tech into these processes.

@CardiCNBC If by WL you mean this wallet, we haven’t launched the effort yet - too early to say how the market will react. That is why I am hiring!

@calilyliu A wrapped stock isn’t a stock.

An ADR is a fax machine for stocks: wrap a foreign equity in a stack of intermediaries, send it to the one country allowed to receive it. Tokenization puts stocks online: wrap it once, and distribute to the whole internet.

@ellemzee I think they are? It will show up as a request on my side. Or send me an email mcagney@figure.com.

@Madeye181 @RWA_xyz @ZawadaJacob I did - you haven’t posted yet!

@thepablob @zoozai_invest Yes - we already deployed @HastraFi on ETH. We like all public L1s (though we like @provenancefdn the most...).

@mcagney @zoozai_invest would you be open do deploying something on ETH?

@thepablob @zoozai_invest Elaborate for me...

@thepablob @zoozai_invest There is no reason to build on permissioned chains.

@mcagney @zoozai_invest We cracked the kyc passport problem. For tokenized securities on public chains in the defi wild. Maybe even bsa compliant. However that would mean there are less reasons to build on private/permissioned chains.

@OddityOddballs @noname93430842 It's not extracting anything. It is solving a problem for free that Figure isn't set up to solve, but needs a resolution for.

Don't worry about the company being hard to understand. It just provides an opportunity to buy back shares while the market figures it out, which it will, given enough profit growth. It's a little concerning seeing the creation of what will likely become a profit extraction project.

@Madeye181 @RWA_xyz @ZawadaJacob Be the first!

@mcagney @RWA_xyz @ZawadaJacob I noticed stocktwits fgrs has nothing no comments

It's good to be #1. The below is per @RWA_xyz. The more shares we migrate from $FIGR to $FGRS, the better the economics for borrow and lend. And you can always swap between stocks at no cost and no tax implication. Ping @ZawadaJacob if you need help migrating shares.

@cheuk_baby @RWA_xyz @ZawadaJacob $213M of vibes and growing...

@mcagney @RWA_xyz @ZawadaJacob i dunno feels like vibes only

@zoozai_invest This is a big part of how we'll get capital in: x.com/mcagney/status…

@mcagney Thanks, financing side is clear. How are you trying to draw the capital in? Beyond the transactional and liquidity benefits, what can you offer to get those dollars on chain?

I think ABCP could start to come over. But even broad retail customers. You can see how Kraken, Coinbase, Robinhood, etc. all are offering up these subsidized 7% yields because retail can't get that on SoFi or eTrade. But subsidies are unsustainable - what Figure does is offer that return sustainably. We just have to make it easier for people to get to it, and in a way that is familiar and safe.

The seed phrase stories are painfully real. I work in accounting and I’ve watched smart finance people bounce off wallet onboarding for exactly the reasons you describe. One thing I keep wondering though: a lot of that $1T in money funds legally can’t touch DeFi even with a perfect wallet. The rules governing those funds are the barrier, not the UX. So who do you see as the first wave of money through the bridge? Family offices? Corporate treasury? Curious which pool of capital you think moves first.

I think the market still comes up short on institutional use, notably around delineation of roles and responsibilities with audit trails. One of the biggest gripes I hear from institutions is fear of the fat finger order - that there is no way to reverse out human error. There are lots of ways to handle this, and it's adjacent to (but part of) the UX solution.

Per another tweet I responded to, one of the challenges we have in Figure is it's hard to understand the company because of the number of venture call option bets embedded in the business. We felt this effort was outside of the scope of what Figure does today and had the risk of distracting Figure from what has been exceptional execution. There are some other reasons that we can discuss on the earnings call, if people want to dive in. Figure isn't the customer - they aren't paying for the wallet. They aren't financing the buildout of the wallet. While the success of the wallet (or something similar) is critical to many of Figure's defi efforts, it isn't what Figure does today. Figure is executing flawlessly and should focus on that execution. And Figure is getting - not buying - a stake in the wallet company to ensure alignment.

One of the challenges we have in Figure is it's hard to understand the company because of the number of venture call option bets embedded in the business. We felt this effort was outside of the scope of what Figure does today and had the risk of distracting Figure from what has been exceptional execution. There are some other reasons that we can discuss on the earnings call, if people want to dive in. Per another tweet I responded to... Figure isn't the customer - they aren't paying for the wallet. They aren't financing the buildout of the wallet. While the success of the wallet (or something similar) is critical to many of Figure's defi efforts, it isn't what Figure does today. Figure is executing flawlessly and should focus on that execution. And Figure is getting - not buying - a stake in the wallet company to ensure alignment.

@mcagney May I ask: why not put this project 100% in the figure company?

@Solofunk @cubexch @aave @SkyEcosystem @maplefinance @Morpho I think the biggest problem is DeFi builders are building for the wrong audience. At the end of the day, this isn't about crypto OGs, it's about the SoFi or Robinhood or eTrade customer being able to access the ecosystem in a way that is familiar and safe.

@mcagney Curious why no one has achieved that. I know folks like @cubexch went a similar route (CEX experience + guaranteed self-custody), and @aave is attempting a similar app. Also, sounds like Democratized Prime can begin the @SkyEcosystem/@maplefinance/@Morpho route and go CeDeFi.

mike you're doing gods work by proving onchain rails can lead to more transparent and efficient origination and financing of debt. However i wish you didn't do it in a silo, there is a world in which the effort to onboard users to onchain markets is cummulative. you just need the right kyc provider...

Important interview. Honestly, I always thought mostly about the transactional benefit that $FIGR brings. Maybe a bit about the liquidity side. But it was interesting to hear how Mike frames DeFi financing as the next thing to be figured out. It's actually quite amazing that $FIGR origination volume outpaces existing DeFi liquidity in no time. But I was left thinking: If loan buyers can get the transactional and maybe liquidity benefits of Figure Connect even while using TradFi money, what is the incremental incentive for them to move onto DeFi financing rails? Would really care for your thoughts here. I might be missing something. Last month origination volume 🔽