- Pencil Finance completed a US$1 million on-chain student-loan cycle: capital was deployed by Pencil Finance as lender and repaid by borrowers, marking the first time capital for student loans has completed a full cycle entirely on blockchain.
- More than 6,600 students across Southeast Asia received loans as a result of this initiative.
3 September 2026 — Pencil Finance, the student loan real-world-asset (RWA) protocol operating on EDU Chain and co-incubated by Animoca Brands and HackQuest, announced today that it has wrapped up the industry's first fully on-chain lending cycle dedicated to student loan financing. The protocol disbursed a combined US$1 million in loans, managed the repayment process, and returned funds—plus yield—to the bundle's backers, with the entire process documented transparently on the blockchain.
The funding bundle was backed in July 2025 by Animoca Brands, Open Campus, and NewCampus, and was structured into two layers: a Senior Tranche offering fixed returns and a Junior Tranche carrying variable returns along with first-loss exposure.
Most of the bundle's capital flowed through ErudiFi, an education financing company that provided student loans and tuition assistance to university students throughout Southeast Asia, particularly in the Philippines and Indonesia. Over the course of a year, funding from Pencil Finance helped support more than 6,600 students across 118 educational institutions, with roughly 1,050 of those students receiving funding directly.
Pencil Finance's lending reached populations often overlooked by conventional lenders. Within ErudiFi's borrower base, half are women, 93% come from lower-income backgrounds, and 52% were obtaining formal credit for the very first time.
A third-party impact assessment, drawing on interviews with ErudiFi borrowers, found that roughly nine out of ten said the loan had a positive effect on their quality of life, over 90% reported it improved their ability to continue their education, and 97% said finding a comparable alternative would have been difficult (source: 60 Decibels). These results point to a persistent shortfall in accessible education financing—one that blockchain-based capital is beginning to address.
Mordor Intelligence values the worldwide student loan market at approximately US$4.75 trillion in 2026, yet affordable financing options remain scarce in many regions, especially emerging markets where students often lack access to traditional lending. The successful completion and repayment of Pencil Finance's inaugural loan bundle offers proof that transparent, blockchain-based funding can be directed effectively to trustworthy education lenders, with every participant able to monitor repayment progress in real time.
Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, said: "Behind the completion of this first-ever on-chain student lending cycle are thousands of students who were able to continue their education thanks to access to alternative funding arranged via Pencil Finance. Structuring that financing on-chain removed several layers of intermediaries, which allowed capital to reach borrowers directly while investors tracked exactly how the initiative performed. This is a clear example of the positive and transformative power of blockchain technology: inclusive finance powered by DeFi."
Shan Han, portfolio manager and head of ecosystem at Animoca Brands and spokesperson for Open Campus, said: "Millions of students in emerging markets are locked out of education by financing gaps that traditional lenders won't close. This bundle showed that on-chain capital can reach them and repay backers in full."
Frank Li, co-founder of Pencil Finance, said: "Education lenders in emerging markets are creditworthy but invisible. Global capital can't verify their performance, so it never reaches them. Putting the lending cycle on-chain changes that: every repayment is recorded and auditable by anyone, in real time. This bundle built a public track record that makes the next bundle easier to fund."
About Open Campus
Open Campus is a community-led DAO that is building the blockchain-powered financial layer for education. Core contributors to the Open Campus DAO include Animoca Brands, TinyTap, NewCampus, RiseIn, and HackQuest. Together, they are working with Open Campus to enhance the education system for teachers, learners, and institutions by using innovative blockchain protocols and funding initiatives. Open Campus has launched EDU Chain, the first blockchain for education designed for consumer-facing education apps and on-chain education finance (EduFi). EDU Chain is built on Arbitrum Orbit and powered by the EDU Token.
About Animoca Brands
Animoca Brands Corporation Limited (ACN: 122 921 813) is a global digital assets leader building and investing in impactful technologies and ecosystems to reimagine future economies through AI and the agentic web. It has received broad industry and market recognition including Fortune Crypto 40, Top 50 Blockchain Game Companies 2025, Financial Times’ High Growth Companies Asia-Pacific, and Deloitte Tech Fast. Animoca Brands is recognized for building digital asset platforms such as the Moca Network, Open Campus, Anichess, and The Sandbox, as well as institutional-grade platforms; providing digital asset services to help Web3 companies launch and grow; and investing in frontier Web3 technology, with a portfolio of over 600 companies and digital assets. For more information visit www.animocabrands.com or follow on X, YouTube, Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and TikTok.
About Pencil Finance
Pencil Finance is a decentralized lending protocol designed to bring student loan financing on-chain. It connects global investors with trusted student loan originators through tokenized loan bundles, enabling loans to be deployed and repayments to be managed transparently on-chain. Pencil Finance operates on EDU Chain and is co-incubated by Animoca Brands and HackQuest.
