Pencil Finance Completes a $1 Million On-Chain Student Loan Cycle for 6,600 Students

ChainCatcher report: Pencil Finance, a real-world asset (RWA) protocol for student loans, has announced the completion of its first fully on-chain student loan cycle, deploying $1 million as a lender, with borrowers fully repaying both principal and interest to the asset pool’s investors. The loan pool was funded in July 2025 by Animoca Brands, Open Campus, and New Campus, structured with senior tranches offering fixed returns and junior tranches offering variable returns while absorbing first-loss risk. This $1 million on-chain loan cycle provided financing for approximately 6,600 students across 118 schools and universities in Southeast Asia, with around 1,050 students receiving direct funding. Pencil Finance stated that these loans target student populations underserved by traditional financial institutions, noting that 50% of borrowers are female and 93% come from low-income households, calling it the first fully on-chain loan cycle to transparently record student loan financing on the blockchain. Additionally, tokenized RWAs are increasingly being used to issue loans or serve as loan collateral. In July this year, Brazil’s stock exchange B3 issued a loan of 100,000 Brazilian reais (approximately $19,600), backed by 10 tokenized cows, each assigned a unique digital token linked to a cryptographic digital identity.