Figure Co-Founder Cagney on DeFi Advantages for Asset-Backed Finance
Mike Cagney outlines why DeFi structure fits asset-backed finance better, citing self-custody, collateral efficiency, and onchain features.
Mike Cagney, co-founder and executive chairman of Figure, said decentralized finance is structurally better suited to asset-backed finance than traditional systems because it avoids repeated staking, improves collateralization, supports self-custody or autonomous venues, and enables liquidity staking.
Figure has already brought asset-backed finance onchain. Cagney estimates roughly $6 trillion in asset-backed finance has not yet migrated onchain at scale.
Barriers cited by Cagney
Cagney listed five reasons traditional finance has moved slowly: poor user interfaces that favored apps such as Robinhood and SoFi, tension between qualified custody and recoverable self-custody, hedge-fund requirements for multiple wallets and tiered permissions, regulatory clarity that is still emerging, and KYC that can be addressed through onchain screening and wallet-level permissions.
What remains unknown
The exact scale of any further migration and the timeline remain unspecified. No independent verification of the $6 trillion figure has been provided.