• 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.

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Pencil Finance, the student loan real-world-asset (RWA) protocol on EDU Chain that is co-incubated by Animoca Brands and HackQuest, today announced that it has completed the first-ever fully on-chain lending cycle for student loan financing. The protocol deployed loans in the aggregate amount of US$1 million to borrowers, serviced through repayments, and returned the capital to the bundle’s funders with yield, with every step recorded transparently on blockchain. 

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‍Animoca Brands, Open Campus, and NewCampus funded the bundle in July 2025, structuring it across a Senior Tranche with fixed returns and a Junior Tranche with variable returns and first-loss risk. 

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The largest share of the bundle's loan capital was deployed through education financing provider ErudiFi, which issued student loans and tuition funding to university students across Southeast Asia, including the Philippines and Indonesia. Over the past 12 months, capital from Pencil Finance contributed to loans supporting more than 6,600 students across 118 schools and universities, including an estimated 1,050 students who received direct funding.

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The loans from Pencil Finance reached students who are underserved by traditional lenders: across ErudiFi's portfolio, 50% of borrowers are female, 93% come from lower-income households, and 52% are accessing formal credit for the first time.

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An independent impact study based on interviews with ErudiFi borrowers reported that 9 in 10 borrowers said their quality of life improved because of the loan, over 90% reported an improved ability to pursue education, and 97% said they could not easily find a good alternative (source: 60 Decibels). The findings underscore the gap in affordable education financing that on-chain capital is helping to close.

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The global student loan market is estimated to be worth US$4.75 trillion in 2026 (source: Mordor Intelligence), while access to affordable education financing remains constrained across much of the world, particularly in emerging markets where students are underserved by traditional lenders. The full repayment of the first Pencil Finance loan bundle demonstrates a working alternative for transparent, on-chain capital channelled to vetted education lenders, with repayment performance visible to every participant.

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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."

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Shan Han, portfolio manager and head of ecosystem at Animoca Brands and spokesperson of 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."

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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."

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‍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.

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‍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.

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‍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.

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‍Media contacts

Open Campus and Animoca Brands: [email protected]‍

Pencil Finance: [email protected]‍