HastraFi has launched the AUTO market, a groundbreaking step for the US auto credit sector, which is valued at $1.68 trillion. This innovative platform, in collaboration with Figure and utilizing the Kamino infrastructure, offers the first permissionless product involving real-world assets on the Solana blockchain. Introduced on July 29, 2026, the AUTO token effectively channels interest payments from near-prime US auto loans into HastraFi’s DeFi credit ecosystem.
Currently, the annual percentage yield (APY) for AUTO tokens is 9.07%, with 2.40 million tokens already being utilized in the market. This development leverages Figure's expertise in originating and managing auto loans, which serve as the basis for yield generation from the AUTO token. Kamino is responsible for managing the lending and liquidity aspects, ensuring smooth operations within the Solana ecosystem.
Chainlink Data Streams provide crucial pricing and data feeds, marking AUTO’s status as the inaugural third-party originated asset within the Hastra protocol. This reflects an openness in the infrastructure, allowing for participation from external originators, with Agora named as a key collaborator in this launch. Once distributed, AUTO tokens can be traded and play a vital role in liquidity provision on the Orca decentralized exchange, integrating with Kamino’s lending solutions and Orca’s liquidity pools.
Building on earlier successes, HastraFi's introduction of AUTO follows their establishment of the PRIME market, which focuses on home equity loans and reached a peak size of over $600 million earlier this year. HastraFi also has future plans for expanding AUTO's capabilities to the Ethereum blockchain.
For investors, near-prime borrowers represent a category just below prime creditworthiness, leading to potentially higher credit risks compared to a portfolio limited to prime loans. The structured workflow still relies heavily on Figure's off-chain servicing of loans, ensuring that legal agreements are enforceable and reporting is accurate concerning issues like delinquency and prepayment. These components remain external to the smart contract layer, which is where DeFi risk mitigation methods predominantly function.