Pencil Finance Completes First Fully On-Chain Student Loan Cycle Worth $1 Million
Pencil Finance, a decentralized lending protocol incubated by Animoca Brands, has completed what it claims is the first fully on-chain student loan cycle. The project raised and deployed $1 million in capital to fund loans through ErudiFi, an education-financing company operating primarily in Southeast Asia. This initiative supported over 6,600 students at 118 institutions across Indonesia and the Philippines, with approximately 1,050 directly funded by Pencil Finance's on-chain loan bundle. The capital was returned to investors after a year, including yield, with all steps recorded transparently via blockchain. Investors were divided into senior and junior tranches based on risk and return profiles. The initiative highlights the potential of blockchain in improving transparency for education financing in emerging markets by creating an auditable public track record. Pencil Finance operates on EDU Chain, a specialized Ethereum-based network built using Arbitrum Orbit. This project aims to bridge global capital with underserved borrowers who lack traditional credit visibility.
Topics: decentralized finance (DeFi) education financing on-chain transactions student loans