Trace Finance Secures $32M to Scale Cross-Border Stablecoin Settlements

Stablecoin settlement infrastructure startup Trace Finance has secured $32 million in a Series A funding round led by CoinFund, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Jump Capital, and Paxos, the company said in a statement shared with Cointelegraph.

Trace Finance says it has processed more than $10 billion in transaction volume to date and plans to use the new capital to expand its services across Latin America, the United States, and Asia-Pacific. The round underscores a broader shift underway in crypto payments: stablecoins are increasingly being treated not just as an on-chain asset, but as part of regulated, bank-connected settlement rails for cross-border transfers.

Key takeaways

• Trace Finance raised a $32 million Series A led by CoinFund to scale stablecoin settlement infrastructure for cross-border payments.
• The company focuses on combining banking, foreign exchange, and stablecoin settlement in markets it says need faster, lower-cost transfers.
• Investment in stablecoin infrastructure is accelerating as firms work to integrate blockchain-based payments into local banking and FX networks.
• Regulatory momentum in major jurisdictions—from the U.S. to Hong Kong and China—continues to shape how quickly stablecoin services can become mainstream.

Why Trace Finance’s funding matters for cross-border settlement

Trace Finance positions itself as infrastructure rather than a consumer app: it aims to help businesses move money across borders by connecting traditional financial functions with stablecoin-based settlement. According to the company, its platform supports banking and foreign exchange alongside stablecoin transfers, targeting a persistent pain point in international payments—slow settlement and friction between payment systems.

That framing helps explain investor interest. As stablecoin usage spreads, the remaining bottleneck for many payment providers is not the ability to move value on-chain, but the integration with off-chain systems: onboarding and compliance processes, FX conversion, and the ability to deliver funds to recipients through local rails. Trace Finance’s stated approach—bringing banking and FX capabilities into the stablecoin settlement workflow—aims directly at that integration challenge.

The company’s capital raise also arrives at a time when stablecoin settlement is trending toward regulated frameworks. Instead of relying solely on crypto-native ecosystems, more players are trying to connect stablecoins to conventional finance in ways that can clear legal and operational requirements—an approach that often requires substantial engineering, licensing, and partner coordination.

Series A follows earlier seed backing

This is not Trace Finance’s first fundraising push. In 2022, the firm raised $4.3 million in a seed round led by HOF Capital, with participation from Circle Ventures and Mantis VC, a venture capital firm co-founded by electronic music duo The Chainsmokers. HOF Capital later joined the company again for the current Series A.

While seed rounds often establish early product direction and initial partnerships, this latest round suggests Trace Finance is moving from initial traction toward broader operational scaling. The company’s reference to having processed over $10 billion in transaction volume is an important signal for investors assessing whether stablecoin settlement can be operationally reliable at higher throughput—especially when settlement flows must reconcile with banking and FX processes.

Regulatory acceleration is reshaping stablecoin infrastructure

Stablecoin policy discussions have intensified since the U.S. passage of the GENIUS Act in July 2025, according to a fact sheet from the White House. The law appears to have acted as a catalyst for international conversations about how stablecoins should be governed, particularly where they are used for payment and settlement.

That regulatory momentum is visible beyond the U.S. Hong Kong implemented its Stablecoin Ordinance in August 2025 and recently issued its first batch of licenses, according to Cointelegraph reporting. Separately, China’s central bank officials have continued to emphasize oversight.

On Wednesday, Wang Xin, a People’s Bank of China (PBOC) official, said authorities are closely monitoring how stablecoins could affect the international monetary system and cross-border payments, as covered by Cointelegraph. His comments were described as less critical than remarks by PBOC Governor Pan Gongsheng in October 2025, when Pan characterized stablecoins as high-risk and vulnerable to misuse for illicit cross-border transfers.

For operators like Trace Finance, these developments are more than headline regulatory updates. Where the legal status of stablecoins—and the conditions under which they can be used—becomes clearer, infrastructure providers gain a path to build and expand services without constantly redesigning compliance assumptions. At the same time, differing regulatory approaches across jurisdictions means providers must be adaptable, which can increase cost and timeline even when demand rises.

Stablecoins moving toward bank-linked payments

Trace Finance’s fundraising sits within a larger pattern: payment companies and financial infrastructure providers are pursuing stablecoin-powered settlement routes while coordinating with existing payment ecosystems.

In the lead-up to this funding, Cointelegraph noted that cross-border payout platform MassPay partnered with Coinbase to offer stablecoin-based international payouts. The firms said the service would allow customers to move between fiat currencies, USDC, and other digital assets while reducing costs and speeding up settlement times.

Other firms have also taken steps to bring stablecoins closer to traditional infrastructure. Cointelegraph previously reported that Stripe acquired stablecoin infrastructure startup Bridge in 2025. Separately, Circle launched its Circle Payments Network in May 2025 with the goal of connecting banks, payment companies, and digital wallets for real-time cross-border settlement using stablecoins, according to Circle’s announcement.

Taken together, these moves point to a sector tension: stablecoin rails can settle quickly, but adoption depends on integration—particularly with FX and banking workflows. Infrastructure providers that can bridge the on-chain and off-chain worlds are therefore positioned to capture more of the value created in cross-border payments, rather than leaving stablecoin usage confined to isolated crypto channels.

Trace Finance will likely face the same scrutiny and operational demands as other infrastructure providers in this category: ensuring compliance across jurisdictions, maintaining settlement reliability at scale, and demonstrating that stablecoin-based settlement can consistently deliver measurable improvements versus existing payment methods.

Next, investors and market participants will watch whether Trace Finance expands smoothly into new regions as planned and how its banking and FX integrations perform under evolving regulatory expectations—especially given that official positions on stablecoins continue to vary across the U.S., Hong Kong, and China.