Pencil Finance Completes $1 Million Onchain Student Loan Cycle in Southeast Asia
The protocol provided financing to over 6,000 students, marking what it claims is the first fully onchain student lending cycle.
Quick Look
- Pencil Finance has finalized a $1 million onchain student loan cycle, providing capital to approximately 6,600 students across 118 Southeast Asian institutions.
- The initiative, funded by Animoca Brands, Open Campus, and New Campus, utilized tokenized RWA structures.
AI-generated summary
Why It Matters
Pencil Finance uses tokenized real-world assets (RWA) to facilitate lending. The platform utilizes a tiered tranche structure to manage risk and provide returns to funders.
Student loan real-world asset (RWA) protocol Pencil Finance completed a $1 million onchain student loan cycle, offering financing to thousands of students in Southeast Asia who were underserved by traditional lenders.
Pencil said it completed its first fully onchain student loan cycle on the blockchain, where the platform deployed $1 million in capital as a lender that was repaid by borrowers to the bundle’s funders with yield, the company revealed in a Thursday announcement shared with Cointelegraph.
The bundle was funded in July 2025 by Animoca Brands, Open Campus and New Campus, structured as a senior tranche with fixed returns and a junior tranche with variable returns and first-loss risk.
The $1 million onchain loan cycle offered financing to about 6,600 students across 118 schools and universities in Southeast Asia. Pencil Finance claims this is the first-ever fully onchain lending cycle financing student loans transparently recorded on the blockchain network.
Of the 6,600 students, about 1,050 received direct funding. Pencil said the loans were designed for students underserved by traditional lenders, with 50% female borrowers and 93% stemming from lower-income households.
Tokenized RWAs are increasingly being used to issue or collateralize loans.
In July, Brazil’s B3 stock exchange issued a 100,000 Brazilian reais ($19,600) loan secured by 10 tokenized cows as collateral, where each cow received a unique digital token linked to an encrypted digital identity, while AI-powered smart collars from agriculture tech company Cowmed monitored each animal’s health.
Open Questions
- What are the specific default rates for the student loan portfolio?
- How does the platform verify student eligibility across 118 institutions?
