This Crypto Project Just Funded 1,000 Student Loans Entirely On-Chain — SkimNews
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- Pencil Finance completed a $1 million student-loan bundle with investor capital deployment, loan servicing, repayment, and yield return all recorded on-chain via its protocol on EDU Chain.
- ErudiFi issued the underlying loans across Southeast Asia — including Indonesia and the Philippines — supporting more than 6,600 students at 118 institutions over 12 months, with about 1,050 receiving funding directly attributable to Pencil Finance.
- Animoca Brands, Open Campus, and NewCampus funded the bundle in July 2025, with Pencil Finance incubated by Animoca Brands and developer community HackQuest.
- Pencil Finance divided investors into a senior tranche offering fixed returns and repayment priority and a junior tranche offering variable returns that absorbs first losses from defaults.
- Pencil Finance disclosed no interest rates, investor yields, default rates, or blockchain transaction records, and the company's claim of the "first fully on-chain student-lending cycle" could not be independently verified.
- ErudiFi's borrower base is 50% women, 93% from lower-income households, and 52% using formal credit for the first time, per the company.
Why it matters: Pencil Finance is pitching on-chain transparency as the bridge between global capital and credit-invisible education borrowers in Southeast Asia, and this bundle is meant to be the first auditable track record that makes future funding easier. But the company disclosed no rates, yields, defaults, or verifiable blockchain records — so the "first" milestone rests entirely on an assertion investors cannot independently confirm.
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