Most fintech companies seeking to crack Europe, Asia, and North America simultaneously would be out raising a Series B by now—probably calling it "growth capital" in the deck. dtcpay is doing something stranger: the Singapore-based crypto payments firm is pushing into regulated markets on both continents using a funding round that closed nearly three years ago.
The $16.5 million raised in June 2023, with participation from Pontiac Land Group chairman Kwee Liong Tek, carries different labels depending on who's counting. CB Insights classifies it as angel money. Dealroom calls it seed. The company announced it as pre-Series A. Whatever the taxonomy, one thing is clear—there's been no public follow-on since. And yet dtcpay now operates under six regulatory regimes, launched a Visa Infinite card, and opened offices in Luxembourg and Hong Kong.
It's the kind of capital efficiency that makes venture capitalists squirm or take notes, depending on their mood.
Licenses as Leverage
Last October, Luxembourg's financial regulator, the CSSF, granted dtcpay an Electronic Money Institution license. The approval wasn't merely bureaucratic. It unlocked passporting rights across the 30-country European Economic Area, the regulatory equivalent of a skeleton key. dtcpay designated Luxembourg as its continental European headquarters and compliance nerve center.
A month later, the firm opened a Hong Kong office. It already held Trust or Company Service Provider and Money Lender licenses there, part of a broader footprint that now spans Singapore (where it's a Major Payment Institution authorized for Digital Payment Token services), Australia, Canada, and the United States. Each jurisdiction demands separate approvals for payments, e-money issuance, cross-border transfers, and merchant acquisition.
That's a compliance burden most early-stage fintechs would need fresh capital to shoulder. dtcpay has opted for a different path: partnerships, strategic narrowing, and perhaps more discipline than founders in frothier times might have mustered.
The Stablecoin Gambit
In December 2024, dtcpay announced it would support only stablecoins going forward—specifically USDT, USDC, FDUSD, and WUSD. The decision meant walking away from Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the dozens of tokens that typically populate crypto payment platforms. Effective January 2025, the company shifted to a stablecoin-focused model.
The timing wasn't arbitrary. Chainalysis data cited by Bloomberg in September showed stablecoin payment volume in Singapore alone approaching $1 billion in the second quarter of 2024. Globally, stablecoin transaction volume reportedly hit around $5 trillion across one billion transactions in 2025, according to figures from Visa and blockchain analytics firm Allium referenced in Singapore's Business Times.
Whether those numbers represent durable infrastructure or speculative froth remains an open question. But dtcpay has placed its bet.
In February, the firm launched the dtcpay Card, built on Visa Infinite rails. The product enables stablecoin-to-fiat spending at more than 150 million Visa merchant locations worldwide. It's a consumer-facing play in an otherwise B2B-heavy portfolio, and it signals something about dtcpay's ambitions—or at least its theory of where margin lives in crypto payments.
Band Zhao, group chairman and CEO of dtcpay Luxembourg, described the strategy to Luxembourg business publication Delano as building "EU-compliant stablecoin infrastructure." That's consultant-speak, but it captures the model: dtcpay wants to be middleware, the pipes beneath the surface, rather than a consumer brand battling for app downloads.
Distribution Through Others
LinkedIn lists dtcpay's employee count in the 51-to-200 range; the company's profile suggests 114 people. For a firm operating in six jurisdictions with ambitions in Vietnam and beyond, that's lean. The alternative to headcount, apparently, is partnership density.
In April of this year, dtcpay integrated Circle's Payments Network, which connects stablecoin issuers to financial infrastructure. In October, it became the first Major Payment Institution in Asia to integrate WalletConnect, a protocol that enables stablecoin payments across third-party wallets, apps, and point-of-sale terminals. Both moves extend dtcpay's reach without requiring it to build proprietary distribution.
On the merchant side, the firm has signed deals with Capella Hotel Group—including properties like Capella Singapore and Patina Maldives—alongside Singapore department store Metro and iStudio, an Apple Premium Reseller rolling out stablecoin acceptance across 22 outlets. There are also partnerships with BNB Chain, WSPN (for the WUSD Card), and Mastercard Move, which handles certain cross-border payment corridors.
The strategy is clear enough: layer integrations across blockchain networks, legacy card rails, and enterprise merchants, then let others handle the last mile. It's capital-light, though it also means dtcpay's growth is partly in the hands of partners who may not share identical incentives.
What Hasn't Been Raised
No public filing, press release, or credible media report documents a funding round since June 2023. If dtcpay has raised additional capital—either quietly or through structures that don't require disclosure—it hasn't surfaced in any of the usual places. As of mid-March 2026, the official story remains: one round, nearly three years old.
What the company has disclosed: back-to-back wins as Disruptor of the Year at the Asia FinTech Awards in 2024 and 2025. ISO/IEC 27001 certification in March 2025. A top-10 global AML ranking from compliance analytics firm Hoptrail, cited in company materials from August 2024.
Co-founders Alice Liu (Group CEO), Band Zhao, and Sam Lin—who transitioned from CTO to COO sometime in 2025—are now steering expansion into Vietnam, where dtcpay signed a memorandum of understanding with the city of Da Nang. Whether that leads to meaningful revenue or remains a symbolic foothold is still unclear.
The Profit Question Nobody's Answering
The unspoken tension in dtcpay's story is whether stablecoin infrastructure can scale profitably on license fees, interchange, and B2B SaaS margins—without the venture-scale dilution that typically accompanies geographic expansion. Most crypto companies burn through capital chasing network effects. dtcpay appears to be testing a different hypothesis: that compliance, partnerships, and product focus can substitute for raw spending power.
It's a contrarian bet in an industry that has rewarded growth over unit economics more often than not. And it's happening across regulated markets that demand both capital reserves and operational discipline, jurisdictions where a misstep can mean losing a license that took years to obtain.
So far, dtcpay is choosing compliance and deferring the capital. Whether that's strategic patience or a sign that capital isn't available on terms the founders find acceptable—well, that's the sort of question that only becomes clear in hindsight.
For now, the firm is expanding on yesterday's money. In fintech, that's either discipline or desperation. Sometimes the difference only becomes obvious when the market turns.
