TL;DR:
- Trace Finance processed more than $10 billion in cumulative cross-border transaction volume prior to this investment round.
- The $32 million Series A funding round was led by CoinFund and featured participation from Coinbase Ventures, Paxos, and Chainlink Labs.
- Brazil currently ranks among the top five countries with the highest concentration of stablecoin infrastructure globally.
In its most recent Series A round, the cross-border payments solutions company, Trace Finance, raised $32 million. This capital injection will be used to scale its technological platform and boost stablecoin adoption in Latin American and Asia-Pacific markets.
Expansion of stablecoin infrastructure and bank connectivity
Currently, Trace Finance operates a regulated banking and payment infrastructure that blends local financial systems with settlement based on non-tangible assets. Company data indicates that the capital will be used to deepen its operational capabilities in foreign exchange (FX) brokerage, direct bank connectivity, regulatory compliance, and stablecoin settlement. Furthermore, geographically, the roadmap outlines an expansion focused on Latin America, the United States, and the Asia-Pacific region.
Thanks to this funding injection, the payments company will optimize its tools by integrating global stablecoin liquidity with the traditional banking rails of Brazil and other emerging markets. Reports from Trace Finance suggest that infrastructure concentration and institutional volume will benefit from products under development designed to mitigate the friction of cross-border transfers.
According to statements from the firm’s CEO, Bernardo Brites, the company’s valuation multiplied nearly tenfold compared to the figures recorded during its seed round in 2022. The firm already provides connectivity support to four of the largest global payment corporations active in Latin American territory, including the processing platform dLocal.
Regulatory framework in Brazil drives institutional volume
The payments environment in the Brazilian market stands as one of the most advanced and complex for corporate operations. Recently, local regulations formally classified the cross-border transfer of digital assets as foreign exchange (FX) operations. This update in financial policies could shift a significant portion of institutional transactional volume toward regulated banking providers, limiting the scope of non-bank alternatives.
Einar Braathen, a partner at CoinFund, stated in an institutional release that the investment focused specifically on bridging the existing gap between blockchain settlements and local banking access. From the investment entity’s perspective, the regulated infrastructure developed by Trace Finance allows global companies to scale their transactions while reducing operational costs compared to traditional systems.
The investment round attracted various strategic participants and venture capital firms from the crypto ecosystem. In addition to CoinFund, the financing included institutional firms Haun Ventures, Jump Crypto, Valor Capital, SNZ Capital, and HOF Capital. Likewise, the round included individual backing from industry figures such as Sean Neville (co-founder of Circle), Anatoly Yakovenko (co-founder of Solana Labs), Bam Azizi (CEO of Mesh), and Ricardo Villela Marino (vice chairman of Itaú Unibanco).
The next verifiable milestone for Trace Finance will consist of the operational implementation of its new settlement tools in Asia-Pacific jurisdictions over the coming quarters, which will test the adaptability of its compliance stack against regulatory and tax frameworks different from the Brazilian model.
