Pencil Finance Completes On-Chain Student Lending Cycle

Pencil Finance has completed its first fully on-chain student lending cycle, deploying $1 million to fund education borrowers in Southeast Asia. The program supported approximately 6,600 students across 118 schools and universities.

The funding was structured into a senior tranche with fixed returns and a junior tranche with variable returns and first-loss risk. Roughly 50% of the borrowers were female, and 93% came from lower-income households.

Pencil Finance claims that this cycle is an example of blockchain-recorded lending for student financing, which traditional lenders often overlook. The company emphasizes the transparency of the process, with all activity recorded on-chain from deployment through repayment.