A blockchain lending firm has seen the value of total loans funded surge to $1 billion since the United States Federal Reserve appear its emergency stimulus interest rate cut last week.

In an announcement on March 10, Figure Technologies — which claims to exist the industry'south first fintech to bring lending to the blockchain — said loan applications with the firm had soared by 300% since the Fed'southward activity.

Unprecedented depression involvement rates

Since its launch in 2022, Figure Technologies has used its blockchain, Provenance, to process consumer loans; one twelvemonth on, the business firm claims it was originating $85 one thousand thousand of loans per calendar month for itself and other major lenders.

In Dec 2022, information technology went on to seal over $100 one thousand thousand in a Series C funding circular led by Morgan Creek Digital, with participation from Mitsubishi UFJ Fiscal Group'due south venture capital arm, MUFG Innovation Partners.

Amongst its blockchain-based lending solutions, Effigy Technologies bug v-infinitesimal home disinterestedness lines of credit (HELOCs), in which the borrower uses his or her house as collateral for the loan.

Mike Cagney, the firm'due south co-founder and CEO, says the platform being congenital on the Provenance blockchain was crucial to back up the growth and innovation of such lending products. Every bit cardinal banks worldwide motility to lower rates in a bid to kickoff the economic impact of coronavirus, Cagney said:

"The 300 percent increment in applications suggests consumers are eager to take advantage of unprecedented lower rates across mortgages, HELOCs and student loan refinancing."

The firm has indicated that the boilerplate size of loans issued in the recent lending surge was roughly $50,000 per household.

Cagney has said that new blockchain-based solutions will be rolled out tied to these lower rates "in the near future."

Market SOS

Every bit reported earlier today, the Bank of England (BoE) has cutting interest rates by 0.v% —  the virtually since 2009 — in direct response to economic force per unit area posed by the coronavirus outbreak.

With traditional markets floundering amid the health crisis, Bitcoin (BTC) as well has faced losses. One commentator, the creator of Bollinger Bands trading indicator, John Bollinger, remarked:

"Bitcoin roughshod victim to the COVID-nineteen panic. I truly did not see that coming, I idea information technology might act as a condom haven asset."

Safety-haven status, he added, remains "entirely psychological" — "a matter of perception, non fact."