Animoca and Nuva Labs Launch Ethereum Marketplace for Institutional RWAs

TL;DR:

• Animoca Brands and Nuva Labs launched NUVA, an Ethereum marketplace connecting approximately $19 billion in tokenized Figure assets to DeFi.
• The platform will debut with two products: nvYLDS, a vault linked to Treasury bonds, and nvPRIME, a token tied to an $18.4 billion mortgage credit portfolio.
• Anthony Moro, former BNY executive and CEO of Nuva Labs, aims to create a global distribution layer for institutional assets accessible in the DeFi market.

Animoca Brands and Nuva Labs launched NUVA, an Ethereum-based marketplace designed to connect approximately $19 billion in tokenized real-world assets —originated within the Provenance blockchain ecosystem— with decentralized finance markets. The initiative aims to transform institutional financial products into instruments that any retail user can trade, lend, or use as collateral within the DeFi ecosystem.

The tokenized assets linked to NUVA originate from Figure Technologies Solutions, the blockchain firm founded by Mike Cagney, former CEO of SoFi. The Provenance ecosystem, on which Figure operates, has become one of the leading on-chain private credit issuers globally.

The wait is over. NUVA is now live: https://t.co/Pkc2DnxrUt 🚀

With one click, gain exposure to institutional-grade RWAs that are composable, with no lockups or minimums.

👉 Now open on Ethereum: nvYLDS & nvPRIME, underlying assets issued by @Figure. pic.twitter.com/FgMBU5T4hT

— NUVA Finance (@NUVAFinance) May 13, 2026

A Distribution Layer for Institutional Assets

The platform will debut with two products. The first, nvYLDS, is a yield vault linked to YLDS, an SEC-regulated stablecoin from Figure, with a supply exceeding $500 million that offers a money market-equivalent yield.

The second, nvPRIME, is a token backed by Figure’s home equity line of credit (HELOC) portfolio, valued at $18.4 billion, currently offering yields above 7% annually, though access remains largely restricted to institutional and accredited investors.

The mechanics are straightforward. Users deposit stablecoins into the vaults and receive ERC-20 tokens representing their share of the underlying assets. Those tokens can then be traded, lent, or used as collateral in DeFi protocols on Ethereum.

NUVA Aims to Expand Beyond Ethereum

Anthony Moro, CEO of Nuva Labs and former executive at BNY, emphasized that the goal is not to create digital versions of traditional products, but to build natively on-chain financial assets. “Nobody really has that unified global distribution layer for blockchain-native assets,” Moro stated. “What was missing was a platform where users could access institutional-quality assets in a simple, composable format.”

Moro questioned tokenization models that still rely on off-chain infrastructure and manual reconciliation, noting that long-term goals include onboarding assets from multiple issuers and expanding to other networks beyond Ethereum.