The challenge
Huma Finance is building the “PayFi” network — a new DeFi category that bridges real-world liquidity for cross-border payments, trade finance, and remittances. To realize this vision, Huma needed to scale from a concept to high-volume, multi-chain infrastructure capable of processing billions of transactions.
They required more than an engineering vendor. They needed a strategic ally to co-develop the core IP, bootstrap the ecosystem, and unlock institutional growth.
The solution
57Blocks engaged with Huma through a holistic, long-term partnership built on four strategic pillars — ensuring success at every layer of the protocol.
Product development — core protocol & dApp
We served as the primary engineering arm, partnering with Huma’s founders to architect the technical foundation.
- Smart contracts. Built the core credit-facility contracts and composable receivables logic, optimized for extreme gas efficiency to support high-frequency PayFi transactions.
- Security & scale. Developed comprehensive invariant tests to secure on-chain assets, enabling the protocol to scale safely to tens of billions in volume.
- Developer ecosystem. Built the Huma SDK and Subgraph — the critical API layer that lets partners build on top of Huma seamlessly.
Value-added investment
Our commitment extended beyond code. 57Blocks Capital participated in Huma’s seed round, and we acted as an active liquidity provider — bootstrapping the protocol’s initial pools to ensure immediate liquidity depth for early borrowers.
Ecosystem acceleration
We built and supported partner applications to expand Huma’s reach. A key example is Jia Finance, a platform for SMB financing in emerging markets. Increased lending on Jia directly drove utilization of Huma’s credit pools — a virtuous cycle benefiting the entire network.
Unlocking partnerships
Leveraging our industry network, we facilitated critical strategic introductions — connecting Huma with players like Rain (Web3 corporate cards), leading to a dedicated credit facility that expanded Huma into corporate spend management and significantly boosted transaction volume.
Business impact
This full-spectrum partnership accelerated Huma from a seed-stage concept to a market-leading PayFi network. The robust infrastructure built by 57Blocks has enabled Huma to scale massively, now processing tens of billions of loans without a single default. By combining expert engineering with capital and strategic networking, 57Blocks helped establish the foundation for the future of on-chain payments.
Bin and Shan were critical to the success of our core technology. They were also exceptional collaborators for building up our internal team’s smart contract capabilities.
Richard Liu · Co-founder & CEO, Huma Finance