The mortgage industry is undergoing a long-overdue transformation. For decades, high origination costs, fragmented data systems, and clunky settlement processes have defined the mortgage lifecycle. But new technologies are reshaping the way money and data flow through the system. One of the most promising developments on the horizon is the use of stablecoins and blockchain infrastructure. While terms like "stablecoin" and "smart contracts" may sound exclusive to the domain of crypto enthusiasts, they’re rapidly becoming relevant tools for capital markets, funding flows, and, ultimately, the mortgage professionals navigating today’s complex lending ecosystem.
Think of a stablecoin as a digital dollar: It holds a fixed value, typically backed 1:1 by U.S. dollars held in reserve, but can be moved instantly and securely via blockchain networks. It can also be programmed to do things electronically, like settle a contract only when specific conditions have been satisfied. Unlike traditional payment rails such as ACH and wire transfers (which are limited by bank hours and settlement windows) stablecoins offer real-time and verifiable transactions. This speed and transparency could, and eventually will, dramatically reduce friction in mortgage funding processes.
Consider warehouse-line funding as a use case. Today, there's often a lag between when a loan is pledged and when the corresponding funding wire is received. This timing mismatch creates risk and operational overhead. With stablecoins, you could enable a synchronized transaction (atomic settlement) in which the loan pledge and funding happen simultaneously. Imagine two revolving doors unlocking at the same moment: The money and the asset transfer in perfect sync, reducing exposure, eliminating human error, and eliminating the need to trust counterparties.
But stablecoins and blockchain aren’t just about moving money, they’re about creating a transparent infrastructure for transactions and reading. For companies like Figure, this technology has already proven to streamline capital markets operations. Every transaction using stablecoin leaves a certified, auditable record. If mortgage payments were collected in stablecoin, for example, prepayment and default rates could be verified instantly and shared without manual audits or data scrubbing. This would allow loan pools to rapidly trade, without weeks of confirming default and prepayment curves via spreadsheets.
This visibility has profound implications for mortgage trading. Diligence costs for loan pools could plummet, and investors would have real-time access to loan performance. This brings further liquidity into the market which benefits all parties. Our reports show that by recording loan attributes and servicing data on the blockchain, we’ve reduced third-party review and quality control costs by more than 80 percent, all while maintaining AAA-rated securitizations (including the most recent from S&P). That’s not just innovation, it’s operational efficiency with regulatory credibility.
Skeptics often frame blockchain as a solution in search of a problem. But the mortgage industry's $12,000-per-loan origination cost and growing reliance on third-party validation services are exactly the problems this technology solves. By creating a verifiable, immutable source of truth for loan attributes, blockchain allows each party in the transaction chain to trust the data without repeating the same reviews and audits.
The mortgage consumer is evolving, and so must the industry. Whether it’s a self-employed borrower, a gig worker, or a buyer in an emerging market, today’s borrowers expect fast, flexible, and transparent lending. They don’t care about buzzwords like “blockchain” or “stablecoin” — they care that the process is fast, the cost is low, and the experience is seamless. By leveraging blockchain and programmable digital assets, lenders can deliver on that promise while reducing their own costs and risks.
It’s all about lowering costs for the industry and ultimately consumers. Mortgage lenders who modernize their tech stacks, streamline their capital markets functions, and respond to changing borrower demands will find themselves thriving and better able to serve their customers. Firms like Figure, by aligning technology with capital markets expertise, are enabling a new standard for the industry.
Stablecoins and blockchain are no longer hypothetical concepts, they're active tools reshaping how capital flows through the mortgage system. From real-time settlement to automated audit trails and reduced diligence costs, these technologies are quietly laying the groundwork for a smarter, more efficient mortgage ecosystem. For industry professionals, the opportunity isn’t just to understand these tools, it’s to help shape how they’re used to improve outcomes for lenders, investors, and borrowers alike.
In the end, this isn’t about digital dollars. It’s about a better mortgage process: faster, cheaper, and more transparent for everyone involved.