Arya.ag has begun putting records connected to approximately $2 billion in stored crops on an Avalanche-based blockchain for agricultural lenders in India.
Summary
- Arya.ag has deployed an Avalanche-based ledger covering grain deposits, receipts and agricultural loan status records.
- The company holds around $2 billion in crops across its Indian warehouse network at present.
- Three major banks are joining Arya.ag’s dedicated blockchain, though their identities remain undisclosed for now.
- Arya.ag facilitates roughly $1.3 billion in annual loans and directly issues around $230 million itself.
- Tokenized records do not transfer grain ownership or guarantee faster approvals and cheaper credit access.
Reports on Sept. 10 said the system records grain deposits, electronic warehouse receipts and loan status, enabling authorized lenders to verify crops offered as collateral. Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani announced the project at the Global Fintech Festival in Mumbai.
The $2 billion figure covers the estimated value of crops held across Arya.ag’s warehouse network. It does not represent the value of loans already recorded on the blockchain. Arya.ag and Ava Labs have not disclosed how much collateral or lending activity has entered the new system.
Arya.ag links grain records with agricultural loans
Farmers who store crops in registered Indian warehouses can receive electronic negotiable warehouse receipts, commonly called e-NWRs. A farmer may use the receipt to secure a loan while keeping the crop in storage and waiting for a suitable time to sell it.
Arya.ag’s blockchain links information about the deposited crop with its warehouse receipt and financing status. Banks can use the shared record to check whether the grain exists, whether another lender has already accepted it as collateral and how much debt remains outstanding.
Warehouse operators and lenders currently maintain some of that information in separate systems. Arya.ag said its ledger is designed to provide participating institutions with a common source of records during collateral verification.
The underlying grain remains in a physical warehouse. India’s legally recognized e-NWR remains the financing document, while the blockchain entry records information connected to the crop, receipt and loan. Arya.ag is not selling grain tokens to cryptocurrency traders or transferring ownership of crops through a public market.
Claims that the system could produce “faster approvals, lower costs or greater access to credit” remain potential outcomes that must be demonstrated during deployment, according to a statement shared with the original report. No comparison of processing times, operating expenses or borrower approval rates has been published.
Three banks are joining the Avalanche network
Arya.ag runs the dedicated layer-1 blockchain using technology developed by Ava Labs. The network is separate from Avalanche’s primary public chains and can apply operating rules suited to banks, warehouses and regulated lending records.
“The L1 is run by Arya,” Ava Labs India head Devika Mittal said. She described it as a dedicated deployment that is expected to support other warehouse companies later.
Three major banks are joining the network, Mittal said, without identifying them. Any bank can join at the current stage, while access for other warehouse operators will come through a future expansion.
Public disclosures do not identify which institutions will operate validators, who can view individual loan records or how Arya.ag will manage data corrections. The companies have not published transaction counts, network capacity, smart-contract addresses or a blockchain explorer.
Financial terms between Arya.ag and Ava Labs were not disclosed. No date has been provided for opening the system to competing warehouse companies, and the partners have not set a public target for moving a specific amount of collateral onto the network.
In related crypto.news coverage, RedStone introduced onchain price feeds for a private-credit vault holding more than $170 million. That arrangement distributes an offchain valuation across several networks but leaves responsibility for the underlying loan valuation with FalconX. Arya.ag’s system similarly relies on verified information about physical assets that remain outside the blockchain.
The existing lending business reaches $1.3 billion yearly
Outside the blockchain project, Arya.ag facilitates roughly $1.3 billion in agricultural loans each year, according to figures released with the announcement. Its non-bank finance subsidiary, Arya Dhan, directly provides approximately $230 million of that total.
Banks and other financial institutions supply the remaining loans after reviewing crops held in Arya.ag-managed facilities. Their credit decisions depend on the grain’s quantity, quality, market value and existing financing status.
Figures reported by TechCrunch in January placed annual lending activity slightly higher. Arya.ag co-founder and CEO Prasanna Rao said the platform facilitated close to $1.5 billion in loans and handled around $3 billion in grain each year.
The January figures and September announcement measure different periods and activities. The earlier $3 billion figure described grain aggregated and stored annually. The latest $2 billion figure represents crops held across the company’s warehouses, according to the announcement.
Arya.ag told TechCrunch that it reached between 850,000 and 900,000 farmers through roughly 12,000 leased warehouses across 60% of India’s districts. Storage generated 50% to 55% of company revenue, finance accounted for 25% to 30%, and commerce supplied the remaining share.
Loans arranged through the platform carried interest rates of approximately 12.5% to 12.8%, Rao said. He compared that range with 24% to 36% charged by commission agents and bank rates near 11% to 12%.
Loan approvals could take less than five minutes before the Avalanche deployment, according to Rao. Arya.ag already used artificial intelligence to assess grain quality, satellite information to monitor crops before harvest and sensor-equipped storage bags in areas without conventional facilities.
Finternet provides rules for connecting the participants
Finternet is helping establish the operating framework through which lenders and warehouses communicate within the system. Nilekani developed the Finternet concept with Agustín Carstens, a former Bank for International Settlements general manager and former Bank of Mexico governor.
Their BIS working paper, published in April 2024, describes Finternet as multiple financial ecosystems connected through shared technical and institutional standards. The proposed model uses tokenization and unified ledgers to connect money with financial and physical assets.
Carstens and Nilekani identified interoperability, verifiability, programmability, settlement finality, scalability, privacy and governance as core design requirements. Their paper says unified ledgers could reduce reliance on separate databases and external messaging systems.
The document is a research proposal, not a BIS regulation or operating standard. A disclaimer states that its views belong to the authors and do not necessarily represent the BIS, India’s Unique Identification Authority or the Foundation for Interoperability in the Digital Economy.
For Arya.ag, Finternet is working on rules governing communication between warehouses and lenders. Available disclosures do not identify a separate legal entity controlling the framework, a dispute process for incorrect records or the standard used to connect bank systems.
Expansion awaits bank activity and warehouse access
India already recognizes e-NWRs as instruments that can support loans against crops stored in regulated warehouses. The blockchain deployment builds on that existing legal structure instead of creating a new ownership claim over the grain.
Farmers retain their rights under warehouse and lending agreements. Banks retain their contractual claims over pledged crops, while blockchain records provide information used during verification and loan management.
Arya.ag intends to admit other warehouse businesses, though it has not published an expansion schedule. The company has not named the three participating banks or disclosed when they will begin processing production loans through the network.
No onchain data has been released showing the number or value of recorded deposits, receipts or loans. Arya.ag and Ava Labs have not announced a deadline for publishing those figures or an independent audit of the system.
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