Huma Finance Raises $38 Million to Expand PayFi Platform with Tokenized Assets
Date: 2024-09-12 Author: Gabriel Deangelo Categories: BUSINESS
Huma Finance has raised $38 million in a funding round aimed at expanding its payments financing platform (PayFi) that uses tokenized real assets (RWAs).
The investment includes $10 million in equity and $28 million in revenue-generating RWAs, according to a report from Insider.
The equity round was led by Distributed Global and supported by Hashkey Capital, Folius Ventures, Stellar Development Foundation, and TIBAS Ventures, the investment arm of Turkey’s largest private bank, İşbank.
Stellar Development Foundation led the RWA portion of the funding with $10 million.
Tokenized real assets consist of multi-tranche bonds
Tokenized real assets include multi-tranche bonds with different maturities wrapped in exchange-traded products.
These assets were issued by Arf Capital, a Swiss company operating under Switzerland’s distributed ledger technology (DLT) laws.
Huma co-founder Erbil Karaman noted this in an email interview, highlighting the regulatory compliance behind the investment.
Huma Finance plans to use the funds to expand its platform to other blockchain ecosystems, including Solana and Stellar’s smart contract network Soroban, in the coming months.
Tokenized real assets are emerging as an important application of blockchain technology, allowing financial institutions to migrate assets such as bonds and loans to distributed ledgers.
The shift promises faster settlements, greater transparency, and improved operational efficiency.
Earlier this year, Huma Finance merged with Arf, joining forces to tokenize real-world assets.
While the two companies remain independent, they now operate under a common holding entity, providing a comprehensive platform for tokenized assets.
Huma predicts the combined company will process $10 billion in payments finance transactions next year.
“Huma’s PayFi network represents a seismic shift in payments finance, bringing critical liquidity and interoperability to an industry that has long suffered from inefficiencies and limited access,” said Chao Deng, CEO of Hashkey Capital, one of the company’s investors.
Tokenized Asset Market Could Reach $1.3 Trillion by 2030
Some in the crypto community are skeptical of a recent forecast suggesting that the tokenized real-world asset (RWA) market could reach a staggering $30 trillion by 2030.
Among the critics is Jamie Coutts, chief crypto analyst at Real Vision, who believes that a more realistic estimate is around $1.3 trillion.
Coutts noted that at the current rate of 121% annual growth in tokenized assets, the market could indeed reach $1.3 trillion by 2030.
Coutts’ cautious forecast is echoed by other industry experts.
A recent report from McKinsey & Company found that the tokenized financial asset market has had a “slow start,” but is still expected to grow to $2 trillion by 2030.
Meanwhile, a report from the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA) and Boston Consulting Group estimates that the global value of tokenized illiquid assets will reach $16 trillion by 2030.
Even more conservative estimates from Citigroup suggest that between $4 trillion and $5 trillion in tokenized digital securities could be issued by 2030.
Recognizing this potential, major companies are actively pursuing tokenization.
For example, Goldman Sachs plans to launch three new asset tokenization products later this year in response to growing client interest.
