Trace Finance raises $32M to expand stablecoin settlement

Trace Finance announced it closed a $32 million Series A led by Coinfund to scale its regulated stablecoin settlement infrastructure and bank connectivity beyond Latin America into the United States and the Asia-Pacific region.

The company provides an enterprise-grade layer that links stablecoin liquidity to local bank rails, handling foreign-exchange conversion, direct bank connections and compliance for cross-border payments. Its platform converts stablecoin liquidity into local-currency payouts and connects to correspondent and local banks.

Trace has processed more than $10 billion in cross-border volume and serves the top four global payment providers operating in Latin America, including dLocal. The firm built its core infrastructure in Brazil, where regulators classify virtual asset cross-border flows as foreign exchange and require established banking relationships.

Coinfund led the round. Other investors included Coinbase Ventures, Haun Ventures, Jump Capital, Valor Capital, Paxos and HOF Capital. Strategic backers listed were Chainlink Labs and SNZ Capital. Angel participants included Sean Neville, co-founder of Circle; Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana Labs; Bam Azizi, co-founder and CEO of Mesh; and Ricardo Villela Marino, partner and vice chairman at Itaú Unibanco.

The company said it will use the funds to deepen banking, FX and compliance capabilities, roll out new settlement products built on its regulated banking relationships, and expand its regulated footprint in the U.S., APAC and additional jurisdictions.

Bernardo Brites, founder and CEO, framed the company’s view: “Stablecoins alone do not solve cross-border payments. Stablecoins plus regulated local bank infrastructure does.” He added the capital will be used to improve bank and FX connectivity and to support fintechs, exchanges, international banks and large enterprises that require legal settlement into local currencies.

Einar Braathen, a partner at Coinfund, pointed to Brazil as an operational proof point: “Brazil is one of the largest and most operationally complex payment environments in the world,” he noted, adding that Trace built a regulated infrastructure that blue-chip businesses use to scale while reducing costs compared with legacy alternatives.

Regulatory differences will shape Trace’s expansion. Brazil’s FX classification shifted institutional volume toward providers with bank relationships. Market participants are watching whether the company’s compliance and banking model will adapt to APAC markets, which include a range of regulatory regimes and banking systems.