Figure Technology Solutions (NASDAQ:FIGR) announced the launch of FGRD on Thursday, marking what the company describes as the first SEC-registered public equity to be issued and settled natively on blockchain infrastructure.
Shares of FGRD are now accessible on the On-chain Public Equity Network (OPEN). Through the Figure Markets app, shareholders can buy, trade, lend, and borrow FGRD with near-instant settlement and the ability to verify ownership in real time, according to the company.
How Figure positions the issuance
Figure distinguishes FGRD from tokenized or mirrored representations by characterizing it as the company’s common stock issued directly on-chain, rather than a derivative or proxy recorded off-chain. The firm says this approach bypasses legacy market infrastructure including the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC), and that OPEN records equities on a public blockchain to enable T+0 settlement through an atomic exchange of funds and shares.
"Public equity still runs on decades-old market plumbing, and it simply doesn’t make sense anymore,"
"By issuing FGRD natively on-chain, we’re re-architecting the core infrastructure of capital markets to be real-time, transparent, and programmable, while removing layers of intermediaries that add cost, risk, and friction,"
said Mike Cagney, Figure’s Executive Chairman.
"Today is the first step in building out the OPEN ecosystem. Figure has a history of seeding marketplaces with our own inventory, and building off that to launch robust partner networks and impressive volume scale. We’re going to do the same with OPEN as we’ve shown the world what’s possible,"
said Michael Tannenbaum, Figure’s CEO.
Market access and integration
The company says OPEN integrates with platforms such as Moomoo, enabling investors to trade OPEN-issued equities either on regulated venues or in self-custodied wallets while preserving compliance and investor protections. Figure also noted institutional participation from Pantera Capital among the early participants in the FGRD offering.
Company background cited
Figure reported that it has originated more than $22 billion in loans on public blockchains, and the firm frames the FGRD issuance as part of a broader shift from batch-based financial systems toward real-time, on-chain capital markets.
The move places Figure at the center of efforts to reconfigure how public equity ownership is recorded and transferred, with an emphasis on immediate settlement and transparent on-chain records. The company presents the OPEN issuance as a foundational step in a wider ecosystem rollout.