Trace Finance raises $32M Series A at ~10x seed valuation to scale regulated stablecoin rails

Trace Finance, a Brazil-based stablecoin payments infrastructure provider, has raised $32 million in a Series A round to scale its regulated cross-border payments platform across Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region. The equity round, which began late last summer and closed in December, represents roughly a 10x valuation step-up from Trace’s 2022 seed round, when it raised $4.3 million, according to co-founder and CEO Bernardo Brites.

CoinFund led the Series A, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Haun Ventures, Jump Capital, Paxos, Chainlink Labs, HOF Capital and others. Angel backers include Circle co-founder Sean Neville, Solana Labs co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, Mesh co-founder and CEO Bam Azizi, and Itaú Unibanco partner and vice chairman Ricardo Villela Marino. As part of the deal, CoinFund Partner Einar Braathen joined Trace Finance’s board.

Trace Finance positions itself as regulated infrastructure, operating under licenses in the U.S. and Brazil and via partner banks in Mexico, Colombia, Europe and Asia. "We are going to pursue additional licenses in Singapore, the U.S. and APAC as part of our strategy going forward," Brites told The Block, adding that the company will first deepen operations in Mexico, Colombia and Argentina before entering Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia.

The firm initially focused on connecting the U.S. and Brazil, building rails that combine local banking systems, FX, compliance and stablecoin settlement. Brazil’s recent move to classify cross-border virtual asset payment flows as foreign exchange operations is expected, per Trace, to push institutional flows toward regulated, bank-grade infrastructure providers. "Stablecoins alone do not solve cross-border payments. Stablecoins plus regulated local bank infrastructure do," Brites said. "We built Trace bridging the U.S. to Brazil and are now extending that infrastructure across LatAm and other emerging markets."

Founded in 2021, Trace Finance says it has processed more than $10 billion in institutional cross-border volume to date and serves as the main infrastructure provider for the top four global payment providers operating in Latin America, including dLocal, with the other three undisclosed due to contractual terms. The raise comes amid accelerated deal activity around stablecoin infrastructure, including Stripe’s acquisition of Bridge for about $1.1 billion and Mastercard’s pending acquisition of BVNK for up to $1.8 billion, as well as growing institutional adoption following passage of the U.S. GENIUS Act. Trace has nearly doubled headcount from 25 at the start of the year to 48 as it builds out new settlement products and prepares for broader LatAm and APAC expansion.