Michael "Mike" Cagney is an American financial technology entrepreneur and investor, known as the co-founder of Social Finance (SoFi), Figure Technology Solutions, and the Provenance Blockchain. His career has focused on applying technology, from early derivative pricing models to blockchain infrastructure, to innovate in lending, capital markets, and asset management. ^{[2] [10]}

Education

Cagney attended the University of California, Santa Cruz, where he completed both a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and a Master of Science in Applied Economics in 1994. He later continued his education at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business, earning a Master of Science in Management as a Sloan Fellow in 2011. ^[8]

Career

Cagney began his career at Wells Fargo in 1994 as an analyst, developing C++ code to price derivatives. He later led the financial products group, managing structured product development, derivative trading, and proprietary trading, overseeing a $25 million daily VaR with consistently high returns. In 2000, he left Wells Fargo to co-found Finaplex, a wealth management software company serving major financial institutions. At Finaplex, he directed product strategy, professional services, and sales, raising over $39 million in venture funding before the company was acquired by Broadridge Financial Solutions in 2007.

From 2005 to 2016, Cagney co-founded and managed Cabezon Investment Group, a global macro hedge fund serving family office clients, focusing on concentrated and directional trades across multiple asset classes. During this period, he also served as board chair of ReFlow Services, providing liquidity and tax management solutions for mutual funds, ensuring sufficient capital for operations. In 2011, while at Stanford Graduate School of Business, Cagney co-founded Social Finance (SoFi), where he served as CEO and board chair until 2017. He led product strategy, launched the first non-bank consumer rated securitization, and grew the company to profitability with nearly 500,000 members. SoFi expanded to offer mortgages, personal loans, wealth management, and life insurance, funding over $20 billion in loans and achieving a valuation exceeding $4 billion by the time of his departure amid workplace controversies.

In 2018, Cagney co-founded Figure Technology Solutions with his wife, June Ou, focusing on blockchain-based financial products and marketplaces. Figure introduced the first consumer loan on-chain, loan securitizations, and a bank-issued stablecoin. In 2024, Figure split into Figure and Figure Markets, with Cagney as chairman of Figure and CEO of Figure Markets, later recombining in 2025 with him as executive chairman. That year, Figure Markets launched the first public fixed-income stablecoin, $YLDS, and a DeFi lending protocol, Democratized Prime. Cagney and Ou also founded Provenance Blockchain, a public proof-of-stake Layer 1 chain, which became the largest public blockchain by real-world assets in 2025. ^{[1] [9]}

Interviews

On-Chain Capital Markets

On Crypto In America in October 2025, Cagney discussed the company's recent IPO that valued it at $7.6 billion on the NASDAQ. He emphasized the transformative potential of blockchain technology in capital markets, highlighting its ability to reduce intermediation and facilitate direct transactions, which could reallocate a significant portion of market capitalization to consumers. Cagney shared insights on how his experience in consumer lending at SoFi informed his approach at Figure, where the focus shifted to utilizing blockchain for more efficient lending processes. He reflected on the enthusiasm surrounding Figure's IPO and the importance of leveraging capital for growth, expressing aspirations to pioneer new blockchain applications beyond the mortgage industry, including developing a blockchain-native public equity and addressing banking sector changes driven by recent regulatory shifts. ^[3]

Rebuilding Finance

In a conversation with Ash Bennington on Real Vision in September 2025, Cagney recounted the inception of his company, Figure, in 2018, which aimed to leverage blockchain technology to transform the finance sector by enhancing capital markets. Cagney outlined how blockchain could replace traditional intermediaries, thereby creating a more efficient environment for transactions, especially in asset-backed securities. He discussed his prior experience with SoFi and how his observations of banking inefficiencies propelled his interest in decentralization and direct lending models. Throughout the discussion, Cagney emphasized the benefits of transactional efficiency, liquidity, and financing possibilities enabled by blockchain, as well as the challenges facing the industry, including regulatory hurdles and the need for the sector to mature to keep pace with shifting financial landscapes. As he looked ahead, Cagney expressed optimism about DeFi's potential to fill gaps left by traditional banking, particularly in the context of significant potential deposit outflows from banks as economic conditions shift. ^[5]

Everything Exchange

On The Wolf of All Streets podcast in August 2025, Cagney revealed that Figure has executed over $50 billion in real-world asset lending transactions on the Provenance blockchain and is a rapidly growing platform, recently adding $850 million in loans in just one month. Cagney highlighted the potential for a significant portion of the $18 trillion in bank deposits to transition into cryptocurrency, largely driven by new legislation, such as the Genius Act, which emphasizes decentralized finance (DeFi). He explained how Figure aimed to transform capital markets by originating loans on the blockchain, thereby facilitating faster access to funds without the need for traditional intermediaries. The conversation touched on the evolving landscape of financial services, with Cagney foreseeing a competition between Wall Street's traditional infrastructure and new decentralized systems that could redefine lending and asset management, ultimately benefiting consumers through improved rates and reduced reliance on banks. ^[4]

Blockchain Lending

In an interview with Jake Claver in June 2025, Cagney discussed the potential of blockchain to disrupt traditional banking through efficient lending mechanisms that leverage native digital assets. He shared his insights on the limitations of conventional loan origination and the advantages of using blockchain technology, including reducing transactional friction and enabling real-time, bilateral transactions. Cagney highlighted the increased security of lending against digital assets like Bitcoin and described how his company had successfully originated significant loans utilizing blockchain, revealing plans to integrate more assets into decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms. He addressed the implications of upcoming stablecoin legislation, suggesting that such regulatory developments could lead to a significant shift in the financial landscape, resulting in a migration of deposits from banks to other financial instruments. Cagney emphasized the transformative potential of DeFi, demonstrating a clear vision for Figure Markets' role in the evolving financial ecosystem. ^[6]