Pencil Finance Completes $1M Onchain Lending Cycle for 6.6k Students
Pencil Finance, an innovative student loan protocol, has achieved a significant milestone by completing a $1 million onchain lending cycle, providing financial support to over 6,600 students in Southeast Asia.
Ecosystem:
- Cryptocurrency Markets: Various tokens experienced fluctuations, with notable mentions including DOGE, TRX, LINK, ZEC, ADA, XRP, ETH, BTC, XMR, BNB, XLM, SOL, and HYPE.
News Highlights:
Pencil Finance’s groundbreaking initiative offers financing to students traditionally underserved by lenders, with a focus on female borrowers and lower-income households. This cycle, structured in July 2025, involved Animoca Brands, Open Campus, and New Campus, marking the first fully onchain student loan cycle recorded transparently on the blockchain.
As revealed in their announcement, the $1 million bundle was divided into a senior tranche with fixed returns and a junior tranche with variable returns and first-loss risk.
Key Statistics:
- Approximately 6,600 students across 118 educational institutions benefited from the loan.
- Over 1,050 students received direct funding.
- The loans targeted students from underserved backgrounds, with a 50% female borrower ratio and 93% originating from lower-income households.
Tokenized RWAs (Real-World Assets):
The increasing adoption of tokenized RWAs in loan issuance and collateralization is gaining traction, as demonstrated by a recent example in Brazil where cows were tokenized for loan collateral.
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