Artem Tolkachev oversees the protocol’s real-world asset and fiat collateral technique. He has been actively concerned within the tokenisation area for almost ten years, advising firms and regulators on digital asset infrastructure and growing a few of the earliest on-chain financing and RWA fashions in Europe.
We just lately spoke with Artem Tolkachev, Chief RWA Officer at Falcon Finance, about how tokenised stocks are altering investor behaviour and the protocols’ technique for integrating real-world belongings into DeFi.
Falcon Finance permits customers to make use of tokenised stocks (xStocks) as collateral to mint stablecoins, unlocking liquidity with out promoting their underlying fairness holdings. By treating equities as major collateral alongside crypto belongings, Falcon goals to develop a unified, capital-efficient steadiness sheet for buyers.
Learn extra about Falcon’s method to threat administration, custody, and the way forward for on-chain belongings within the interview beneath.
Falcon positions tokenised stocks as a solution to unlock liquidity with out promoting. How do you see this mechanism altering investor behaviour as extra blue chips and RWAs come on-chain?
The main behavioural shift is that “maintain versus promote” ceases to be a easy binary selection. With xStocks, a Tesla or Nvidia place can stay absolutely intact whereas the investor mints USDf in opposition to it and allocates that liquidity elsewhere.
So as an alternative of promoting belongings to boost money, individuals can maintain and earn. Your fairness turns into the anchor, and USDf acts as working capital round it. It additionally encourages buyers towards a “one steadiness sheet” mindset: crypto, equities, treasuries, and different RWAs sit in a single programmable portfolio slightly than being confined to separate silos.
For establishments, that merely equates to greater capital effectivity. Belongings that beforehand sat idle in custody or brokerage accounts can now help treasury, yield, or hedging methods with out exiting the unique publicity. Over time, the default turns into: retain the asset you belief, and let it give you the results you want on-chain.
Tokenised stocks and synthetics differ in custody, backing, and regulatory therapy. How do you clarify these variations to establishments which can be accustomed to conventional synthetics however are new to their on-chain counterparts?
We start with what they already perceive: CFDs and total-return swaps. The simple clarification is that synthetics are contracts the place you assume pure counterparty threat. xStocks are absolutely backed certificates, held 1:1 with regulated custodians inside a bankruptcy-remote SPV.
So as an alternative of holding a declare on a dealer’s steadiness sheet, you maintain a tokenised tracker that’s straight backed by actual equities in segregated accounts. From a rights perspective, it’s nearer to a structured word: you get financial and value publicity, however not voting rights. The actual improve is on the infrastructure aspect. xStocks commerce 24/7, can reside in institutional custody wallets, and join on to Falcon as collateral.
We current them as absolutely collateralised fairness trackers on programmable rails, not “DeFi CFDs.” That has a really completely different threat profile and makes for a significantly better start line for establishments.
Falcon built-in tokenised stocks straight into its collateral engine. What gaps in DeFi did you determine that justified together with equities as major collateral slightly than contemplating them a distinct segment RWA class?
As a result of most RWAs had been not likely doing something, tokenised treasuries and credit score sat in remoted vaults with no true composability. They didn’t talk with the remainder of DeFi.
Our view is easy: RWAs solely matter once they function composable collateral. If an asset can’t unlock liquidity or combine into on-chain technique stacks, it’s merely a static wrapper. DeFi collateral, nonetheless, has been too targeted on crypto. In order for you a common collateral engine, treasuries, credit score, gold, and equities should sit alongside BTC and ETH, not in a separate RWA aspect pocket.
So Falcon brings xStocks into the identical composable collateral engine as blue-chip crypto, retains them collateral-only, and cleanly separates RWA threat from the USDf yield engine. It creates a cleaner, safer, extra modular cross-asset system as an alternative of remoted, non-composable vaults.
You utilize overcollateralisation ratios to handle threat throughout crypto, gold, and equities. What threat parameters drive your OCR settings for tokenised stocks in contrast with extra unstable belongings?
We use the identical framework throughout all collateral varieties, simply with completely different inputs. For tokenised stocks, we have a look at 4 issues.
First, volatility and drawdowns. Massive-cap equities are much less unstable than altcoins however can nonetheless hole on information or earnings, putting them in a mid-range class.
Second is liquidity for each the underlying inventory and the tokenised wrapper, focusing on volumes, depth, and the pace at which positions could be unwound.
Third, we study the mismatch between the oracle and buying and selling hours. Equities commerce 5 days every week, whereas DeFi operates repeatedly, 24/7. We have to perceive what occurs throughout gaps and round market openings.
Lastly, we contemplate correlation and focus, inspecting single-name threat, sector clustering, and the extent to which the e-book is tied to a single theme.
Immediately, that leads to equities sustaining roughly a 20% buffer. That is extra conservative than treasuries however much less unstable than high-volatility crypto. The principle level is that it employs a single threat framework throughout crypto, gold, treasuries, and equities, slightly than a separate RWA regime tacked on.
xStocks are absolutely backed and held with regulated custodians. How does Falcon confirm the integrity of custody and ensure the bankruptcy-remote construction really protects customers in a worst-case state of affairs?
xStocks employs a sturdy safety mannequin wherein the underlying shares are held 1:1 in segregated accounts with regulated custodians. These belongings by no means seem on the issuer’s steadiness sheet.
A impartial Swiss Safety Agent is a celebration to a tripartite management settlement with the issuer and custodians. The Agent has full oversight of the custody accounts and might lawfully assume management of the belongings if the rights of token holders usually are not maintained. This serves because the authorized enforcement layer Falcon relies upon on, an impartial entity devoted solely to safeguarding buyers.
Furthermore, Backed has built-in Chainlink Proof of Reserves. An audit agency screens the precise custodial balances and updates attestations each 10 minutes, which Chainlink oracles publish on-chain. Falcon can independently confirm at any second that circulating xStocks by no means exceed the actual shares held in custody.
The construction is fully bankruptcy-remote. Every xStock is issued by an SPV, and token holders have a first-priority declare on the underlying shares, as outlined within the EU-approved prospectus. Our confidence stems from two ranges: regulated segregated custody plus an impartial Safety Agent, and steady, verifiable on-chain proof-of-reserves. Collectively, these present Falcon with a high-trust collateral asset even in excessive eventualities.
Falcon lets customers mint USDf in opposition to tokenised stocks, maintain fairness publicity, and deploy liquidity elsewhere. Which yield methods do you see turning into core drivers of this “maintain and earn” behaviour?
First is the bottom layer. Customers mint USDf in opposition to their tokenised stocks and stake it into sUSDf. This grants them entry to Falcon’s delta-neutral yield engine with out exposing their fairness. For a lot of, that is the best and most intuitive route: maintain the asset you belief, earn on the {dollars} you unlock.
Second is composability. As soon as customers maintain USDf, they will transfer it freely throughout DeFi into lending markets, LP positions, hedges, or structured methods. The hot button is that they keep full publicity to Tesla, Nvidia, or an S&P basket, whereas USDf turns into their working capital.
Third is structured entry. We anticipate extra vaults and automatic methods to emerge that utilise USDf and even xStocks straight and encapsulate extra advanced positions into one-click merchandise. This makes “maintain and earn” accessible even to those that don’t want to handle positions manually. Throughout all three classes, the sample stays the identical: fairness serves because the anchor asset, and USDf gives programmable liquidity round it. That is the behavioural shift we’re already observing as we speak.
How does Falcon consider market readiness earlier than including a brand new fairness class as supported collateral?
After we contemplate including a brand new fairness class as collateral, we run it by a simple three-step filter.
First, the standard of the market and infrastructure. We have to observe ample liquidity in each the underlying fairness and its tokenised wrapper. This consists of actual volumes, slender spreads, clear pricing, and reliable oracle feeds. If the market can’t help a swift unwind beneath stress, it isn’t appropriate collateral.
Secondly, authorized and custody readability. We study how the tokenised asset is issued, together with the SPV construction, segregation mannequin, the underlying custodian, and the general public documentation. If the authorized framework isn’t clear and the custody infrastructure isn’t institution-grade, we received’t proceed with onboarding.
Third, threat and precise demand. We assess value behaviour, sector focus, correlations, hole threat, and whether or not customers genuinely wish to mint USDf in opposition to that asset.
Falcon just isn’t a museum of tokenised belongings; we add collateral provided that individuals will use it considerably. If all three containers are checked (liquidity, authorized readability, and actual demand), we proceed with onboarding. If even considered one of them appears weak, we’d slightly wait. That’s how we preserve a sturdy collateral engine whereas increasing the supported asset universe.
What milestones do you anticipate the trade to hit by 2030, and the way does Falcon put together for an surroundings the place conventional belongings and on-chain belongings converge?
By 2030, I anticipate most main liquid belongings (treasuries, credit score, equities, gold, index merchandise) to be on-chain as programmable collateral, not as a result of “crypto wins”, however as a result of the infrastructure is solely higher. It provides real-time settlement, clear custody, international entry, and the flexibility to attach belongings straight into automated methods.
The following wave of funding will probably stem from short-duration treasuries, investment-grade credit score, and large-cap equities or ETF-style trackers. These devices already dominate conventional portfolios, and as soon as they’re built-in into clear tokenised railways, transitioning them into DeFi turns into a matter of effectivity slightly than ideology.
Falcon is making ready for that world by constructing a cross-asset collateral engine as an alternative of a crypto-only one. We preserve three separate pillars: collateral threat, technique threat, and consumer returns. This ensures that any well-structured tokenised asset can combine into the system with out creating noise or contagion.
Sooner or later, a consumer is not going to suppose by way of DeFi versus TradFi. They’ll merely have a look at their portfolio (BTC, treasuries, credit score, equities) and ask one query: “How a lot USDf liquidity can this unlock?” Falcon’s job is to offer an prompt, exact reply and route that liquidity safely throughout the on-chain financial system.
