Former BNY exec launches Nuva with $19B in tokenized RWAs from Figure Technologies

Anthony Moro, a former BNY Mellon executive who spent more than two decades in the American Depositary Receipt business, launched Nuva in May 2026 as an Ethereum-based marketplace co-built with Animoca Brands and Nuva Labs, debuting with nearly $19 billion in tokenized real-world assets drawn from Figure Technologies' lending portfolio. The platform's opening inventory makes it one of the largest single-source RWA deployments on a public blockchain to date, according to CoinDesk's coverage of the launch.

Nuva functions as a non-custodial distribution layer: users deposit stablecoins and receive ERC-20 tokens representing fractional ownership in underlying assets originally originated on Figure's Provenance blockchain. Those tokens can then be traded, lent, or posted as collateral across Ethereum DeFi protocols. The architecture is designed to move institutional-grade products — previously restricted to accredited investors — into a format accessible to a broader base of on-chain participants.

The platform launched with two products. The first, nvYLDS, is a Treasury-linked yield vault tied to Figure's SEC-regulated stablecoin YLDS, which had accumulated a supply exceeding $500 million at launch. The second, nvPRIME, is a token backed by Figure's portfolio of home equity lines of credit — a book totaling $18.4 billion — and carries a stated yield above 7%. Both products rely on Figure's registration under the Investment Company Act of 1940, which Moro has cited as the compliance foundation for the offering. Details on the launch structure are available via the Nuva official platform.

Figure Technologies, founded by former SoFi CEO Mike Cagney, originated the underlying HELOC portfolio and has processed more than $19 billion in home equity financing to date, according to reporting aggregated by Blockster on Figure's loan volume. The company's Provenance blockchain has served as the origination and settlement layer for that book, with Nuva now acting as the Ethereum-side interface for secondary distribution and DeFi composability.

Nuva Digital, the entity behind the platform, raised $5.2 million in seed funding ahead of the launch, with Animoca Brands participating as a co-creator and backer. The seed round details reported by The Block confirmed Animoca's involvement alongside Nuva Labs in structuring the marketplace. The funding round preceded the public launch by several weeks.

The launch arrives as the broader tokenized asset market has expanded substantially. According to data tracked at the RWA.xyz on-chain tracker, tokenized assets on public blockchains surpassed $12 billion by March 2026, more than doubling from approximately $5 billion at the start of 2025, with Ethereum hosting the majority of that value. Nuva's $19 billion in sourced assets, if fully deployed on-chain, would represent a material addition to that total — though the platform has not disclosed what portion of the Figure portfolio is currently live versus staged for future issuance.

Figure also launched a separate RWA Consortium in partnership with leading crypto firms to expand blockchain-based capital markets access, as detailed in a Figure Technologies press release on the RWA Consortium. Nuva's Ethereum distribution layer operates alongside, rather than within, that consortium structure, though both initiatives draw on the same underlying Provenance-originated loan book.

Several material details remain undisclosed in the launch materials. Nuva has not published the specific liquidation mechanics that would apply to nvPRIME token holders in the event of HELOC defaults or a deterioration in the underlying collateral pool. The platform has not identified the custodian or legal trustee holding the HELOC receivables on behalf of token holders, nor has it disclosed the fee structure applied to stablecoin deposits or redemptions. The announcement does not specify whether nvYLDS or nvPRIME tokens have received a formal legal opinion confirming their treatment under U.S. securities law beyond the general reference to Investment Company Act registration.

What the launch does establish concretely is a live Ethereum marketplace with two ERC-20 products backed by Figure's existing loan origination infrastructure and a $5.2 million seed-funded entity to operate it. It does not establish confirmed secondary-market liquidity for either token, a disclosed audit of the underlying HELOC pool's current performance, or regulatory clearance from the SEC specifically for the nvPRIME or nvYLDS token structures as distinct from Figure's existing registrations.