Stablecoin fever is still running hot. Zerohash, a crypto and stablecoin infrastructure startup, is set to raise about $100 million at nearly a $1 billion valuation, according to two sources familiar with the deal. The publicly traded online brokerage Interactive Brokers is leading the funding round, said the two people, who spoke to Fortune on the condition of anonymity to discuss private business dealings.
Spokespeople for zerohash and Interactive Brokers declined to comment.
The fundraise follows zerohash’s Series D from 2022, when the company raised $105 million from investors including Bain Capital, NYCA, and Point72 Ventures. The Series D valued the company at $340 million, according to data from Pitchbook.
Founded in 2017, zerohash (formerly styled as Zero Hash) provides backend infrastructure that helps banks, brokerages, as well as fintech companies offer cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and other digital assets to their customers. Now, the company has become an influential player in the hot sector of stablecoins, or cryptocurrencies pegged to underlying assets like the U.S. dollar.
Zerohash partnered with Stripe to help the fintech giant’s customers go from cash to stablecoins through zerohash’s network of banking relationships and regulatory licenses. It has also worked with Securitize, another crypto startup, to help traditional finance titans like BlackRock and Franklin Templeton enter the tokenization race, or when issuers put traditional financial assets like money market funds into blockchain wrappers. Zerohash lets customers exchange stablecoins for tokenized assets. Other zerohash clients include the prediction marketplace Kalshi as well as the neobank MoneyLion.
Stablecoin summer
Zerohash isn’t the only stablecoin startup to attract tens of millions of dollars in venture capital over the past year. After Stripe announced its acquisition of the stablecoin company Bridge for $1.1 billion in October, similarly positioned startups…