Trace Finance Takes $32M Series A to Scale the Bank Layer Stablecoins Are Missing

Trace Finance, a regulated cross-border payments company, closed a $32 million Series A to extend its stablecoin settlement infrastructure beyond Latin America and into global markets.

• Key Takeaways:
• • Trace Finance closed a $32M Series A led by Coinfund, with Coinbase Ventures and Haun Ventures among the participants.
• • The company has processed over $10B in cross-border volume and serves the top 4 global payment providers in LatAm.
• • Trace plans to expand regulated stablecoin infrastructure into the U.S., APAC, and additional markets using the new capital.

Coinfund Leads the Round

According to the release shared with Bitcoin.com News, Coinfund led the raise. Coinbase Ventures, Haun Ventures, Jump Capital, Valor Capital, Paxos, and HOF Capital joined the round, along with strategic backers Chainlink Labs and SNZ Capital.

Angel participants include 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 Itau Unibanco, Latin America’s largest bank.

What Trace Actually Does

Trace connects global stablecoin liquidity with local bank infrastructure in high-growth markets. The company does not just move stablecoins; it handles the FX conversion, bank connectivity, and compliance layer that enterprises need to settle payments across borders legally and at scale.

That distinction matters. Brazil classifies virtual asset cross-border flows as foreign exchange operations, pushing institutional volume toward providers with real banking infrastructure. Trace built that stack there and became the main provider for the top four global payment companies operating in LatAm, including dLocal.

To date, Trace has processed more than $10 billion in cross-border volume.

Why the Founders See a Bigger Gap

Bernardo Brites, co-founder and CEO of Trace Finance, made the company’s position clear: “ Stablecoins alone do not solve cross-border payments. Stablecoins plus regulated local bank infrastructure does.”

Brites said the Series A funds will deepen the company’s banking, payments, and compliance infrastructure for global fintechs, exchanges, international banks, and enterprises that need to bridge digital settlement with local financial systems.

The Investor Case

Einar Braathen, Partner at Coinfund, framed Brazil as both a proof point and a filter. “Brazil is one of the largest and most operationally complex payment environments in the world,” Braathen remarked, adding that Trace built a regulated infrastructure that blue-chip businesses are using to scale while reducing costs compared to legacy alternatives.

Where the Money Goes

Trace will use the capital to pursue large global enterprises, deepen its FX and bank connectivity products, and expand its regulated footprint across Brazil, the United States, APAC, and additional priority jurisdictions.

New settlement products are in development, built on its existing regulated banking infrastructure and designed to connect local financial systems in Brazil and LatAm with global stablecoin liquidity.

What’s Next

Trace built its core infrastructure in one of the world’s most demanding regulatory environments. The question investors are now pricing in: whether that compliance stack travels as cleanly to APAC as it did from the U.S. to Brazil.