New York, Jan 16, 2026, 08:40 EST — Premarket
- Shares jumped roughly 16% in premarket trading, following Thursday’s close at $55.87
- Mizuho lifted its price target to $64 from $56 while maintaining an Outperform rating
- This week, the company launched its OPEN on-chain public equity network on Provenance
Figure Technology Solutions (FIGR.O) jumped roughly 16% to $64.96 in premarket on Friday, following Mizuho’s boost of its price target to $64 from $56. The firm kept its Outperform rating on the fintech stock. Since its $25 IPO last September, the shares have surged significantly. (Investing)
This shift shines a spotlight on a seldom-seen corner of the market: the recording, settlement, and borrowing of shares. That infrastructure is typically slow, centralized, and costly to access.
Figure is pushing ahead regardless. As a fresh face on the market, it’s betting that “market structure” will drive growth instead of just adding to compliance expenses.
Figure announced Wednesday the launch of its On-Chain Public Equity Network, or OPEN, which it claims allows companies to list equity directly on a public blockchain instead of issuing tokens tied to traditional shares. The shares will trade on a limit order book through Figure’s Alternative Trading System, or ATS — a regulated platform that matches buyers and sellers outside a public exchange — enabling continuous trading, the company said. (GlobeNewswire)
“OPEN reinvents equity trading,” said Mike Cagney, Figure’s executive chairman, in the company’s announcement. Shareholders will also gain the ability to borrow against and lend out stock via its “Democratized Prime” decentralized finance protocol—DeFi, which covers blockchain-based financial services operating without a central middleman. (GlobeNewswire)
The company announced plans to be the first issuer using OPEN, aiming to enable two-way exchange between OPEN shares and its Nasdaq-listed stock, allowing liquidity to flow across both platforms. Figure said Jump Trading LLC will handle market-making, while BitGo will provide custody for eligible shareholders. It also revealed it already has a first commitment lined up for the next on-chain issuance. (Nasdaq)
Yet the stock’s rally hinges on tricky-to-predict factors: the pace at which issuers enter the market, if regulators greenlight wider on-chain issuance, and whether DeFi-based stock lending steers clear of the operational hiccups and risk-management failures that tend to unsettle institutional players.
Traders are waiting on a timetable for Figure’s inaugural OPEN-based issuance and whether additional market makers and issuers step forward. According to Nasdaq data, Figure is set to release earnings on Feb. 12. (Nasdaq)
