Stablecoin infrastructure company HIFI has raised 37 million USD in a Series A round led by Left Lane Capital, betting big that the future of DeFi is not flashy trading apps but the boring, essential plumbing that moves dollars between blockchains and the traditional banking system. The round, announced Thursday, is HIFI’s first priced funding round, and it lands at a moment when stablecoin payments are booming even as the wider crypto market shrinks.
By David Chen | September 24, 2026
The Hook: DeFi’s Next Battleground Is the Bridge to Banks
HIFI CEO Zach Walsh told Cointelegraph that the company is processing approximately 7 billion USD in annualized volume directly through its platform. What does HIFI actually do? In plain terms, it is a bridge with a bank license mindset: its infrastructure lets customers move dollars into and out of stablecoins, send payouts through US banking rails and cards, and settle the cash side of tokenized repo and Treasury transactions in US dollars.
Think of stablecoins as money that lives on the internet, and banks as money that lives in the old system. Every serious payment application needs a reliable two-way bridge between them — and that bridge is where HIFI is staking its claim.
Why Now: Payments Growth Defying the Bear Market
The funding comes amid sustained growth in stablecoin payments even as crypto prices have struggled. According to Chainalysis, cross-border stablecoin flows rose 77.5 percent to 220.3 billion USD in the 12 months ending June 2026 — even as the wider crypto market shrank by more than a third over the same period. Usage, in other words, is decoupling from price.
“This financing will support the scaling of HIFI’s tokenized capital markets infrastructure and the expansion of its broader product suite, including stablecoin payments products,” Walsh said. The company did not disclose its valuation.
- 37 million USD — Series A raised, led by Left Lane Capital
- 7 billion USD — approximate annualized volume processed on HIFI’s platform
- 220.3 billion USD — cross-border stablecoin flows in the 12 months to June 2026, up 77.5 percent per Chainalysis
The Core Conflict: DeFi Native Ambitions Meet Wall Street Rails
The most telling part of HIFI’s expansion is where the demand is coming from: not crypto natives, but traditional finance. In July, the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) — the organization that settles most US securities transactions — conducted production trades using tokenized securities across several market functions, including US Treasury and repo settlement, equity transactions, securities lending and collateral workflows. HIFI was among more than 30 firms that participated, alongside BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and Nasdaq.
The DTCC plans to launch its Tokenization Service in October, converting assets held at the Depository Trust Company into tokenized representations. Every tokenized Treasury or repo trade still needs a way to move actual dollars at settlement speed — which is exactly the niche HIFI’s dollar-settlement infrastructure occupies.
On the retail side, HIFI has also expanded into card-based payouts through Visa Direct: its platform allows customers to convert USDC and send the proceeds to eligible Visa debit and credit cards globally. That turns a crypto balance into spendable money in a card wallet — a use case that has long been the missing link for everyday stablecoin adoption.
Market Implications: The Visa Signal
Payments giants are validating the same thesis. Visa reported on September 9 that more than 160 stablecoin-linked card programs were live globally during its fiscal second quarter, with payment volume through those programs rising nearly 200 percent year over year. Visa also said its stablecoin settlement volume had surpassed a 20 billion USD annualized run rate — more than 15 times its level a year earlier.
For DeFi investors, the implication is a rotation in where value accrues. The speculative froth of past cycles is giving way to infrastructure revenue: companies that process real settlement volume earn real fees. HIFI’s 7 billion USD annualized volume, growing institutional pilots, and a fresh 37 million USD war chest place it squarely in that camp — though competition from banks building their own rails, and from other fintech-stablecoin hybrids, will be intense.
The Verdict
HIFI’s raise is a vote of confidence in the least glamorous and possibly most durable corner of crypto: dollar plumbing. Cross-border stablecoin volume is compounding at double-digit rates regardless of market direction, and Wall Street’s tokenization push — with the DTCC’s October launch looming — needs exactly the settlement infrastructure HIFI is building. The company did not disclose a valuation, and it faces well-funded rivals, so this is not a risk-free story. But for anyone tracking where serious money is actually going in DeFi, the signal is clear: follow the settlement layer, not the hype.
The cryptocurrency market remains highly volatile. This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial advice.
tokenized repo settling 7 billion annualized is the detail everyone skips. if that keeps compounding the 37m raise looks cheap in hindsight
37m series A for stablecoin plumbing while trading apps struggle. left lane is betting on pipes, not pumps, and history says that is the smarter side
37m for stablecoin plumbing in a bear market. left lane backing infra instead of another perp dex gives me slight 2021 oracle vibes, in a good way
zach walsh calling it the boring essential layer is the right read. nobody builds the bank bridge because its unsexy until suddenly its the whole business
7 billion annualized volume is the number that matters here. Tokenized repo settlement is a genuinely underrated use case for a bridge with banking rails
@Wardi Krug treasury tranche settlement on chain is the quiet giant. if HIFI keeps that license mindset they eat the wire transfer business alive
first priced round ever and they landed 37m. wonder what the valuation was, not disclosing it is usually doing a lot of heavy lifting
or standard middling, which is what infra rounds usually are. the licensing progress matters way more than the mark
undisclosed valuation after a payments round in sep 2026 means it was either great or grim. no in between lmao
first priced round but they bootstrapped since 2020, had real volume before raising. valuation cope is coming from people who skipped that part