- Trace Finance has raised $32 million in Series A funding led by CoinFund
- The Brazil-based fintech startup plans to use the fund to expand its regulated cross-border payments and stablecoin settlement infrastructure.
- The raise comes as Brazil tightens oversight of stablecoin and FX flows.
Trace Finance has raised $32 million in Series A funding to expand its regulated cross-border payments and stablecoin settlement infrastructure.
The round was led by CoinFund, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Haun Ventures, Jump Capital, Valor Capital, Paxos, HOF Capital and others.
Trace said the funding will be used to scale transaction capacity, deepen its FX, Pix, compliance and stablecoin settlement products, and expand its regulated footprint across Brazil, the United States, APAC and broader Latin America.
The company provides financial infrastructure for enterprises, fintechs, exchanges, payment companies and global platforms moving money through emerging markets.
Its stack combines local payment rails, Pix connectivity, banking infrastructure, FX, compliance operations and stablecoin-enabled settlement. Trace’s website says it supports Brazilian real-to-stablecoin conversion through Pix integration and connects with local rails including Pix, SPEI, ACH and SEPA.
Trace said it has processed more than $10 billion in institutional cross-border volume to date.
The company also said it is the main provider for the top four global payment providers operating in Latin America, including dLocal.
In 2022, Trace raised $4.3 million in a seed funding round led by HOF Capital and included Circle Ventures, Mantis VC, BlockFi and others.
Brazil has become an important test market for stablecoin-based payments
In February 2025, Brazil’s central bank chief Gabriel Galipolo said about 90% of the country’s crypto flow was tied to stablecoins, mainly due to payment use cases. He also pointed to oversight concerns around taxation, money laundering and payments regulation.
Brazilian regulators have since moved to bring more virtual-asset activity into the formal financial system.
In November 2025, Brazil’s central bank issued new rules for the crypto sector, extending anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing requirements to virtual asset service providers. The rules also classified some fiat-pegged virtual asset transactions, including stablecoin payments and transfers, as foreign exchange operations.
That shift impacts Trace’s business model.
The company is not pitching stablecoins as a standalone replacement for banks. It is positioning itself as the regulated bridge between global stablecoin liquidity and local banking systems in complex markets.
“Stablecoins alone do not solve cross-border payments. Stablecoins plus regulated local bank infrastructure does,” Bernardo Brites, co-founder and CEO of Trace Finance, said in a statement shared with AlexaBlockchain.
“This round lets us deepen the banking, payments, and compliance infrastructure that global fintechs, exchanges, international banks and enterprises rely on to bridge digital settlement with trusted local financial systems,” Brites added.
“We built Trace bridging the U.S. to Brazil and are now extending that infrastructure across LatAm and other emerging markets.”
Pix is another important part of the story.
Launched by Brazil’s central bank in 2020, Pix has become one of the country’s most important payment systems. Pix is expected to account for 50% of Brazil’s e-commerce transactions by 2028, according to a study by payments firm Ebanx.
For cross-border payment companies, Pix connectivity can be critical.
It gives global payment firms access to a real-time domestic payment rail in Brazil, while stablecoins can support faster international settlement and liquidity movement. That combination is where Trace says it operates.
Brazil’s scale also gives Trace a larger market to build from.
Chainalysis said Brazil received an estimated $318.8 billion in crypto value in 2024, representing nearly one-third of Latin America’s crypto activity. It also ranked Brazil fifth in its 2025 Global Crypto Adoption Index.
The broader stablecoin market is also becoming more institutional.
Stripe, Ripple and other payment infrastructure firms have argued that stablecoins can reduce settlement time and improve cross-border payment efficiency. But the Bank for International Settlements has warned that stablecoin use in cross-border payments also creates regulatory, risk-management and monetary-sovereignty challenges.
That is why regulated infrastructure is becoming a competitive layer.
Stablecoins can move value quickly, but enterprises still need banking access, compliance checks, FX execution, local payout rails and regulatory coverage before those flows can be used in production.
CoinFund partner Einar H. Braathen said the next phase of global money movement will depend on companies that can connect onchain settlement with trusted local banking systems.
“Brazil is one of the largest and most operationally complex payment environments in the world, and Trace has built the regulated infrastructure that global blue-chip businesses are using to scale, while saving time and costs compared to legacy alternatives,” Braathen said.
The round also included support from strategic backers and operators across crypto, payments and banking.
Participants included Circle co-founder Sean Neville, Solana Labs co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko, Mesh co-founder and CEO Bam Azizi, and Ricardo Villela Marino, partner and vice chairman of Itaú Unibanco.
Trace said it is also developing new settlement products built on its regulated banking infrastructure.
The goal is to deepen its role connecting local financial systems in Brazil and Latin America with global stablecoin liquidity.
Why does it matter?
Trace’s funding reflects a broader shift in stablecoin adoption.
The market is moving beyond crypto-native transfers and toward regulated financial infrastructure that can be used by payment companies, banks, fintechs and global enterprises.
Brazil shows why that matters.
Stablecoin use is already large, Pix has become a major domestic payment rail, and regulators are pushing crypto-linked flows into clearer FX and compliance frameworks. That creates demand for companies that can handle the full stack: stablecoin liquidity, local banking access, FX, compliance and settlement.
The value is not only faster payments. It is the ability to move money through emerging markets without relying only on slow correspondent banking routes or fragmented local providers.
Trace’s Series A round shows investors see that bridge between stablecoins and regulated banking as one of the next important layers in global payments.
The above article “Trace Finance Raises $32M to Expand Stablecoin Settlement Rails Across Brazil, U.S. and APAC” was first published on AlexaBlockchain. Read the complete article here: https://alexablockchain.com/trace-finance-raises-32m-series-a-funding/
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