Trace Finance announced on June 17, 2026 it has closed a $32 million Series A led by CoinFund, a sign that investors remain confident that regulated stablecoin infrastructure can reshape how money moves across borders. Coinbase Ventures, Haun Ventures, Jump, Valor Capital Group, Paxos and HOF Capital joined the round.
The São Paulo startup specializes in an unglamorous but critical piece of financial plumbing: bridging stablecoin settlements with the conventional banking systems that still dominate commerce in emerging markets. Since launch, Trace has processed more than $12 billion in institutional volume, The Block reported, serving exchanges and enterprises that need to convert on-chain dollar tokens into local currency payouts—fast.
CEO Bernardo Brites told The Block the round values Trace at roughly ten times what the company fetched in its 2022 seed financing, though he declined to name an absolute figure. CoinFund partner Einar Braathen took a board seat as part of the deal.
A Single Pipe Between Two Worlds
What Trace sells is conceptually straightforward. Businesses plug into a single API and can shuffle money between stablecoin networks—think USDC or USDT—and regulated local payment rails. In Brazil, that means tying blockchain-confirmed settlements to instant payouts via Pix, the central bank's real-time transfer system, or the older TED wire network. Developer documentation on Trace's site describes an "immediate settlement" workflow that promises near-instant conversion from on-chain finality to Brazilian reais hitting a recipient's account.
The fresh capital will fund expansion beyond Brazil. Trace is eyeing Mexico, Colombia, Argentina, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea and broader Southeast Asia, Brites said. The company also plans to deepen its foreign-exchange and compliance tooling and scale transaction throughput to handle larger institutional clients.
Trace's pitch hinges on a regulatory shift that has reordered Brazil's stablecoin landscape. In November 2025, the Brazilian central bank issued Resolution 521, reclassifying fiat-backed stablecoin transactions as foreign-exchange operations effective February 2, 2026. A subsequent rule, Resolution 561, issued in April 2026 and taking effect October 1, 2026, tightened further which entities can participate in stablecoin-based cross-border flows. The combined effect, Trace argues, pushes institutional volume toward providers with bank-grade infrastructure and away from informal or lightly regulated channels.
"Stablecoins alone do not solve cross-border payments," Brites said in a statement accompanying the funding announcement. "Stablecoins plus regulated local bank infrastructure do."
It is a familiar refrain in fintech: the killer app is not the technology itself but the boring connective tissue that makes it usable in a world of legacy systems and watchful regulators.
Customers and Traction
Trace counts dLocal among its clients, according to The Block. The Uruguay-based payments processor handles transactions for global merchants operating in emerging markets and has long dealt with the friction of moving money in and out of countries with volatile currencies or restrictive capital controls. Trace also appears on Circle's public partner directory alongside names like Bitso, OKX and Mercado Bitcoin, though such listings are marketing materials rather than formal endorsements or regulatory filings.
Headcount has nearly doubled. The Block noted the company grew from about 25 employees to 48 around the time of the announcement. LinkedIn data from late last year showed the firm had processed upward of $12 billion—a figure higher than the $10 billion cited in mid-2026, suggesting the company's volumes continue climbing.
Brites co-founded Trace in 2020 with Rafael Luz, now chief operating officer, and Leone Parise, the chief technology officer. Before Trace, Brites ran Lasting Capital, a crypto trading desk in Brazil, and held a partnerships role at Transfero, another Brazilian crypto firm, according to an interview published by Securities.io.
A Consolidating Market
The Trace round arrives as the stablecoin infrastructure sector shows signs of maturation—and consolidation. Stripe acquired stablecoin platform Bridge for $1.1 billion early last year. Mastercard followed with a deal to buy BVNK for as much as $1.8 billion, announced in the spring and closed by summer. Mastercard had already tapped Trace for its Start Path Blockchain & Digital Assets accelerator cohort.
"The next phase of global money movement will be won by companies that can bridge onchain settlement with trusted local banking systems," Braathen said in a statement.
Whether that vision proves prescient depends in part on how quickly regulatory frameworks catch up to the technology. Brazil has been unusually proactive, but many jurisdictions remain in wait-and-see mode. For now, Trace is betting that being early—and compliant—in high-growth markets will pay off.
The company raised a $4.3 million seed round in early 2022 led by HOF Capital, with backing from Circle Ventures, Mantis VC and angel investors including Circle co-founder Sean Neville and Solana Labs co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko. With the new financing, Trace has raised just over $36 million to date.
