Figure Technology Solutions (NASDAQ:FIGR) reported sharply higher first-quarter 2026 revenue and profitability as executives emphasized that the company is positioning itself as a blockchain-native capital markets platform rather than a traditional home equity lender.
Chief Executive Officer Michael Tannenbaum said the company delivered “over 110% consumer loan marketplace growth” and an adjusted EBITDA margin of roughly 50%, describing the performance as a “rule of 140” when combining revenue growth and margin. Chief Financial Officer Macrina Kgil said adjusted net revenue rose 92% year over year to $167 million, while GAAP net income totaled $45 million, including a $7 million tax benefit. Adjusted EBITDA increased about 190% year over year to $83 million.
Consumer loan marketplace volume reached approximately $2.9 billion in the quarter, up from $1.4 billion in the prior-year period. Kgil said March marked the first month in which Figure crossed $1 billion of consumer loan marketplace volume, reaching $1.2 billion. Figure Connect accounted for 56% of overall first-quarter volume, up from 54% in the prior quarter.
Executives Stress Blockchain Capital Markets Strategy
Executive Chairman and Co-founder Mike Cagney used the call to outline Figure’s long-term strategy and said investors should not view the company simply as a home equity line of credit business.
“Figure is not a HELOC company,” Cagney said. “Figure is a company building a capital market ecosystem native to blockchain.”
Cagney said the company’s ecosystem is organized around three verticals: debt and structured finance, equity and non-debt digital assets, and capital and financing markets. He said yield is the “currency” connecting those verticals.
In debt and structured finance, Cagney said Figure began with its own retail HELOC production in 2018 but has since evolved into a business-to-business debt platform. He said the company now has more than 380 third-party partners, and more than half of mortgage production trades on Figure Connect, its whole-loan marketplace.
Cagney also described Figure Forge as a platform designed to turn whole loans into smaller participation units that can be used more effectively as collateral in decentralized finance, or DeFi. He said the company announced Agora as its first third-party Forge partner in the first quarter and is building a pipeline across consumer, mortgage, small business and other loan categories.
First-Lien, Depository and Business-Purpose Lending Drive Growth
Tannenbaum said Figure added 80 new partners during the quarter, the most in company history, and launched partners including the seventh-largest mortgage lender in the country. He also highlighted the onboarding of Flagstar Bank, which he described as a large regional depository and the largest bank originator on Figure’s marketplace to date.
The company continued to expand first-lien lending, with first-lien volume reaching 20% of total volume, up from 19% in the prior quarter and 14% in the year-earlier period. Tannenbaum said Figure competes primarily in small-balance loans, where its $1,000 average cost to originate compares favorably with an industry average of $11,500.
Cagney said the company sees a significant opportunity in sub-$300,000 first-lien loans, a category he said many lenders historically did not originate because the economics were not attractive. In response to an analyst question, he said that market is “greenfield” in many cases rather than a direct share-taking opportunity.
Tannenbaum also pointed to rapid growth in business-purpose lending, including small and medium-sized business channels, with volume approaching $60 million in the quarter. He said debt service coverage ratio loans and residential transition loans both grew 70% in the quarter and represent part of a roughly $100 billion annual origination market.
Take Rate Holds at 3.8% as Mix Shifts
Kgil said Figure’s net take rate was 3.8% in the quarter, in line with prior guidance of 3.5% to 4%. She said the company does not view take rate as its primary performance metric because it is affected by product mix, partner mix and market execution.
Tannenbaum said first-lien loans generally carry lower take rates but higher dollar revenue because balances are larger. He gave the example of a 2% take rate on a $300,000 first-lien loan producing $6,000 of revenue, compared with a 4% take rate on a $60,000 second-lien loan producing $2,400, while origination costs are similar.
Kgil said the company is more focused on contribution profit, EBITDA and absolute dollar economics than on take rate alone. She also said Figure had retained some loans on its balance sheet longer than usual to support the build-out of Democratized Prime, its DeFi marketplace, which contributed to higher interest expense and reduced adjusted EBITDA margin by about 1.4 percentage points.
DeFi, YLDS and OPEN Remain Strategic Priorities
Tannenbaum said YLDS and Democratized Prime balances each grew roughly 80% quarter over quarter. Kgil said Democratized Prime ended the quarter with matched offer balances of $368 million, while YLDS ended at $598 million.
Tannenbaum said YLDS growth included “a major milestone” involving an OCC-chartered bank keeping YLDS on its balance sheet for treasury purposes. He also said Figure is working with a large regional bank on a sweep arrangement expected to drive additional balances. He described the YLDS economic model as a captured spread over SOFR of roughly 35 basis points multiplied by the outstanding YLDS balance.
Democratized Prime added Agora Auto Assets during the quarter, with $24 million borrowed as of the end of the prior month, Tannenbaum said. He said the company has already added three more third-party borrowers this quarter, including a DSCR originator and Credibly, a fintech lender for small and medium-sized businesses. Figure had planned to add eight to 10 third-party originators in 2026, though Tannenbaum said the company is on track to exceed that goal.
Cagney also discussed OPEN, Figure’s On-chain Public Equity Network, saying it allows stock to be registered on blockchain rather than through DTCC and supports trading through the company’s ATS. Tannenbaum said Open World Ltd. is the second issuer to publicly file a registration statement with the SEC with the intent to use OPEN.
Guidance and Outlook
Figure introduced formal quarterly guidance for consumer loan marketplace volume, with Kgil projecting second-quarter 2026 volume of $3.8 billion to $4.1 billion. She said April was another record volume month, and momentum continued into May.
Kgil said Figure ended the quarter with approximately $1.5 billion in cash and cash equivalents. Loans held for sale totaled about $500 million at quarter end, up $100 million from year-end and roughly in line with the prior-year period.
Executives also discussed artificial intelligence as a driver of operating efficiency. Tannenbaum said Figure has seen a 25% year-over-year increase in engineering “story completion” on flat headcount, as well as 70% chat containment in customer support. Kgil said operations and processing costs declined to 74 basis points of volume from 93 basis points a year earlier as consumer loan marketplace volume more than doubled.
Management said fixed expenses are expected to remain relatively stable, while variable expenses will grow with volume. Kgil said the company expects additional AI-driven improvements to have a greater impact in the second half of 2026.
About Figure Technology Solutions (NASDAQ:FIGR)
Figure is building the future of capital markets using blockchain-based technology. Figure's proprietary technology powers next-generation lending, trading and investing activities in areas such as consumer credit and digital assets. Our application of the blockchain ledger allows us to better serve our end-customers, improve speed and efficiency, and enhance standardization and liquidity. Using our technology, we continue to develop dynamic, vertically-integrated marketplaces across the approximately $2 trillion consumer credit market and the rapidly growing approximately $4 trillion cryptocurrency and digital asset market.
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