NUVA, a real-world asset marketplace established by Nuva Labs and Animoca Brands, has unveiled a new token designed to grant international investors access to U.S. home-equity loans starting at a minimum investment of just 1 USDC.
Known as HOME, the token provides participants with exposure to a pooled investment structure that initially contains home equity lines of credit (HELOCs) originated via Figure Technology Solutions. NUVA aims to deliver a 7% annual yield from these loans, with the target adjusting on a monthly basis. Loan performance and interest revenue shape the net asset value of the vault, which subsequently dictates the price of the token.
HELOCs serve as a mechanism enabling homeowners to borrow against their property equity. Borrowers gain entry to a credit line over a specific timeframe, typically carrying a variable interest rate. Based on Federal Reserve Economic Data, the value of U.S. HELOCs grew to $460 billion during the second quarter.
The HOME token does not grant purchasers direct ownership of separate loans, but rather provides exposure to the portfolio collectively. This distinction is significant because the token takes an asset class conventionally reached through whole-loan acquisitions, private-credit funds, or securitizations and integrates a managed format into decentralized finance (DeFi).
“Traditional securitization was engineered primarily for institutional players,” explained Anthony Moro, CEO of Nuva Labs, during a discussion with CoinDesk. “For individual investors, those frameworks can prove challenging to navigate.”
Breaking down barriers
HOME is not the pioneering tokenized private-credit asset. Maple Finance established onchain lending pools tailored for institutional borrowers, whereas Centrifuge has functioned to bring structured products and credit onchain. Figure itself presently tokenizes HELOCs on the Provenance blockchain. HOME stands apart in how it bundles that exposure. Qualified non-U.S. participants can access a managed vault of home-equity loans originated by Figure using 1 USDC, bypassing the need to purchase entire loans or commit capital via a traditional private-credit fund.
“HOME participants do not hold direct ownership of the underlying debt,” noted Moro, who spent 22 years as an executive at BNY Mellon. “Instead, they maintain HOME tokens which grant exposure to the assets retained within the vault.”
NUVA has focused on linking Figure-originated assets with public blockchain networks. The HOME asset serves as a test to determine whether cryptocurrency participants desire such exposure through a composable, tradable token adhering to the ERC-20 standard on Ethereum rather than via a standard fund structure.
Read more: Former BNY exec launches NUVA, bets tokenization will remake Wall Street
NUVA projects it can capture decentralized finance yield appetite without needing to stimulate foundational demand for the underlying loans. The consumer-loan marketplace operated by Figure handled $4.3 billion in activity during the second quarter, which included $2.8 billion processed through Figure Connect, a venue where securitization investors and whole-loan buyers acquire debt.
“HOME is not attempting to manufacture demand for residential credit from the ground up,” Moro remarked. “It takes an asset category already enjoying substantial institutional backing and delivers that exposure via a more accessible onchain architecture.”
Furthermore, the underlying market continues to grow. U.S. HELOC balances expanded by $13 billion over the second quarter, marking their 17th consecutive quarterly expansion, according to data from the New York Fed.
For non-U.S. users only
The HOME product will remain restricted to eligible non-U.S. participants. Residents of the U.K., China, Hong Kong, the British Virgin Islands, and sanctioned territories are also barred, according to Moro. NUVA plans to enforce these parameters through IP address filtering and wallet screening protocols.
The initial portfolio for HOME will target HELOCs featuring an average FICO score—a credit evaluation metric developed by the Fair Isaac Corporation—of no less than 735, a combined loan-to-value ceiling of 69%, and a debt-to-income threshold not exceeding 40%, Moro stated. California exposure will have a 30% cap, while other states will be restricted to 15%. Residential-transition loans and debt-service coverage might be incorporated at a later stage.
The offering features no lockup period, though redemption requests, which can be initiated at any moment, generally require roughly two U.S. business days to process. NUVA indicated that a 5% liquidity buffer will manage minor redemptions. Larger withdrawals might necessitate selling loans via over-the-counter channels or Figure Connect.
A separate first-loss equity segment, calculated to be approximately 5% of the total vault valuation, is designed to absorb defaults or losses stemming from forced liquidations before they impact HOME investors, the chief executive noted. Although this framework supplies a protective cushion, Moro emphasized that it does not completely remove the liquidity and credit hazards tied to U.S. residential lending.
Moro stated that the ultimate goal is to publish loan-specific data directly onchain—covering collateral, delinquency rates, borrower credit scores, and loan-to-value percentages—rather than forcing investors to rely solely on periodic fund disclosures.
Originally published at https://www.coindesk.com/business/2026/10/08/nuva-brings-u-s-residential-mortgage-credit-to-offshore-investors.
