Weekly Funding Signal
Stablecoin payments and on-chain financial infrastructure dominated Asia-linked funding this week, with a clear tilt toward compliance tools and cross-border corridors connecting Latin America to APAC.
Key Deals
| Project | Sector | Amount | Investors | Why It Matters |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trace Finance | Stablecoin Payments | $32M Series A | CoinFund (lead), Coinbase Ventures, Haun Ventures, Jump Capital, Paxos, Chainlink Labs, HOF Capital | Expands stablecoin settlement rails into APAC after processing $10B in LatAm cross-border volume. |
| Range | Stablecoin Compliance | $8.3M Series A | TX Ventures, SixThirty, Maven 11 Capital, Onigiri Capital | Provides real-time sanctions and fraud screening for stablecoin payments, tracking ~99.41% of vol. |
| Renaiss | RWA / Collectibles | $1.5M Seed | YZi Labs (lead), Gate Ventures, Hash Global, XIN Family | Tokenizes physical collectibles on BNB Chain; 260K users, $20M revenue, Asian growth led. |
| K25.ai | Prediction Markets | $10M Pre-A | NewGenIVF Group (strategic), with APAC exclusive rights | AI-native prediction market targeting Asia, pre-launch, with Nasdaq-listed backer pushing regional licensing. |
| Karta | CeFi / Credit | $140M Series A | Galaxy Ventures and CIM (co-leads) | Global credit card for HNWIs using stablecoin infra and AI, partnering with Asian private banks. |
| Interchecks | Instant Payments | $50M Series C | Bettor Capital, Commerce Ventures, Decades Holdings, Thayer Street Partners | Debit-based funding for crypto wallets and neobanks; profitable, $50B+ processed, API-first. |
| El Dorado | Cross-Border Payments | $9M Series A | Paradigm (lead), Coinbase Ventures, Verda Ventures | LatAm P2P/B2B rails with stablecoin-fiat integration, fueling China-EV trade from Brazil. |
| MANTRA (Inveniam acquisition) | RWA / AI Data | M&A (terms undisclosed) | Inveniam Capital Partners (full acquisition) | Dubai-licensed L1 for compliant AI agent identity; acquisition cements AI-RWA data thesis. |
Builder to Watch
- Renaiss: Renaiss is bringing physical trading cards and collectibles on-chain through a network of verified vaults and card shops acting as nodes on BNB Chain. Its multi-sig custody model enables verifiable, composable liquidity for real-world assets—a rare example of Asian-led RWA infrastructure with tangible user traction. With 260,000 users and $20 million in revenue since its late-2025 beta, Renaiss signals that tokenized collectibles can scale when anchored to existing retail ecosystems. The YZi Labs-led round and focus on DeFi/AI agent integrations point to a broader trend of Asian markets embracing on-chain physical asset markets.
- Trace Finance: Trace Finance is building stablecoin settlement infrastructure for global payment providers, already processing over $10 billion in institutional cross-border transactions. Its $32 million round, led by CoinFund, is explicitly aimed at expanding into APAC after establishing a foothold in Latin America. What sets Trace apart is its role as a backend rail for major providers like dLocal, rather than a consumer-facing app, positioning it as a picks-and-shovels play on real-time stablecoin settlement. The involvement of Circle and Solana co-founders as angels suggests a deep convergence of stablecoin issuance, blockchain scalability, and regional payment networks.
Capital Flow
- Stablecoin-related infrastructure and compliance tools attracted the most capital, with Trace and Range collectively raising $40.3 million, reflecting sustained investor appetite for payment rails and risk management layers.
- Investors favored projects with existing revenue and institutional adoption—Trace’s $10B processed, Range’s 10,000+ connected institutions, and Interchecks’ profitability and $50B lifetime volume were key differentiators.
- The Asia angle was strongest in projects explicitly targeting Asian markets (K25.ai’s APAC prediction market, Renaiss’s Asian user growth) and in cross-border corridors linking Latin America to Asia (El Dorado’s China-EV trade payments, Trace’s APAC expansion). Dubai-licensed MANTRA also reinforced the Middle East as a compliance hub.
PANews View
Stablecoins are maturing from simple transfer mechanisms into full-stack financial infrastructure, with this week’s deals underscoring a shift toward compliance middleware and real-time settlement. Asia’s role is increasingly two-sided: as both a destination market for global payment rails and a source of innovative RWA tokenization models. The MANTRA acquisition by Inveniam hints at an emerging thesis around AI agent data verifiability on compliant chains, a pattern worth watching as regulatory frameworks in Dubai and Singapore evolve.
