Key Takeaways
Huma Finance is a PayFi network — enabling global payment institutions to settle their payments 24/7 using stablecoins and on-chain liquidity.
The platform supports lending and borrowing through a novel PayFi model, enabling access to credit without traditional collateral.
HUMA is the utility and governance token powering the Huma Finance ecosystem.
Huma facilitates programmable payments, on-chain underwriting, and real-time liquidity for institutions and developers.
What Is Huma Finance?
Huma Finance is a PayFi network — enabling global payment institutions to settle their payments 24/7 using stablecoins and on-chain liquidity. Huma powers settlements for a range of PayFi use cases such as cross-border payments, credit cards, trade finance, and enables novel solutions like DePIN financing.
Huma provides on-demand settlement liquidity solutions to global payment institutions.
Instead of using archaic solutions like SWIFT and pre-funding, such institutions settle using liquidity from the Huma protocol and benefit from the 24/7 and instant nature of stablecoin settlements.
Institutions pay 6-10 bps per transaction per day until they pay back the liquidity they borrowed, which usually takes 1-6 days.
Hence, the liquidity in the protocol circulates many times over the year, and these small transactional fees add up, compounding quickly to generate yields.
How Does Huma Finance Work?
Huma democratizes access to decentralized finance with a permissionless model, allowing anyone to tap into institutional-grade PayFi yields—previously available only to professional investors.
The existing permissioned service continues under the Huma Institutional brand, serving institutional partners with tailored requirements.
Prior to April 2025, Huma Institutional (permissioned) was the original product.
Launched in April 2025, Huma (permissionless), also known as Huma 2.0 is the flagship product.
Huma Institutional
Since its launch on Solana in 2024, Huma has delivered sustainable yields to liquidity providers (LPs) by deploying capital into various PayFi applications. These platforms generate revenue through transaction fees from businesses that leverage Huma's accelerated cross-border payment solutions, enabled by Solana's high-speed blockchain.
The product was initially tailored for institutional participants, which requires professional investor accreditation and KYB/KYC verification.
Due to regulatory compliance needs of our partners, Huma’s PayFi Network was permissioned, and only institutions and accredited investors willing to go through KYC/KYB could participate as LP.
Huma 2.0
With the launch of Huma 2.0, Huma becomes permissionless while maintaining compliance. Everyone can participate as LP, enjoy yields, earn additional rewards (Huma Feathers), and be part of the PayFi movement.
This launch kicks off a new era for real-yield in DeFi rooted in real-world payment activity. It’s built for a world that’s always on.
Highlights:
Permissionless Access – No requirement for professional investor status or KYC/KYB.
Classic and Maxi Modes – LPs can choose Classic Mode for a balanced mix of stable yield and Huma rewards or Maxi Mode to maximize Huma rewards at the cost of APY.
Flexible Lockups – LPs can opt for no lockup or enhance rewards by locking capital for 3 or 6 months.
Pros & Cons of Huma Finance
Pros
Real-world use case: on-demand settlement liquidity
Strong stable yield model
Institutional-grade partnerships
PayFi narrative alignment
Cons
Currently needs broader awareness
Regulatory and compliance uncertainties.
Requires trust in data accuracy and integration.
Real World Use Cases
Huma Finance can be applied in various contexts. In emerging markets, cross-border lending based on remittances can offer affordable credit options. Small businesses can convert unpaid invoices into liquidity, helping them manage cash flow and grow operations. Employees may access early wage advances through tokenized payrolls, while healthcare or education services can be delivered through deferred payment models enabled by Huma’s infrastructure.
These examples show the protocol’s versatility and its potential to support a broad range of financial scenarios where traditional credit systems fall short.
HUMA on Binance Launchpool
On May 22, 2025, Binance announced Huma Finance (HUMA) as the 70th project on Binance Launchpool.
Users who stake BNB, FDUSD, and USDC from May 23 to May 25, 2025, are eligible to receive HUMA airdrops. A total of 250 million HUMA tokens were allocated for Launchpool rewards, representing 2.5% of the total supply.
Additional distributions include 50 million HUMA allocated to marketing campaigns immediately after listing and another 40 million HUMA set aside for marketing campaigns three months post-listing.
HUMA was listed with the Seed Tag applied and will be available for trading from May 26 at 13:00 (UTC) against the USDT, USDC, BNB, FDUSD, and TRY pairs.
HUMA is supported on both BNB Smart Chain and Solana.
Closing Thoughts
As a PayFi Network, Huma provides a modern infrastructure that synchronizes money movement with modern commerce through real-time settlement. PayFi is accelerating this transformation and Huma is making it happen—driven by its mission: to accelerate the movement of money for a world that's always on.
Further Reading
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