Trace Finance raises $32 million Series A to expand in LatAm and APAC

Trace Finance has raised $32 million in a Series A round to expand its stablecoin payments infrastructure business across Latin America and the Asia-Pacific region. CoinFund led the financing, with Coinbase Ventures, Haun Ventures, Jump Capital, Paxos, Chainlink Labs, HOF Capital and others participating, alongside angel investors including 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. Co-founder and CEO Bernardo Brites said the Brazil-based company began raising the equity round at the end of last summer and closed it in December. He said Trace's valuation has increased about 10x since its 2022 seed round, when it raised $4.3 million, but did not disclose the current figure. CoinFund Partner Einar Braathen also took a board seat as part of the deal. The raise comes as stablecoin infrastructure investment and M&A activity accelerates, helped by the GENIUS Act and broader institutional adoption. Brites said Trace operates regulated infrastructure under licenses in the U.S. and Brazil and works through partner banks in Mexico, Colombia, Europe and Asia. The company plans to pursue additional licenses in Singapore, the U.S. and APAC (Asia-Pacific region), while expanding first in Mexico, Colombia and Argentina before moving into Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and Southeast Asia. Trace said it initially focused on connecting the U.S. and Brazil, combining local banking rails, foreign exchange, compliance and stablecoin settlement (using stablecoins to complete transfers). Brites argued that stablecoins by themselves are not enough for cross-border payments and that regulated local banking infrastructure is needed alongside them. Founded in 2021, Trace said it has processed more than $10 billion in institutional cross-border volume to date and is the main infrastructure provider for the top four global payment providers operating in Latin America, including dLocal. The company also said it is developing new settlement products and has expanded headcount from 25 employees at the start of the year to 48 today.