The funding will facilitate the expansion of enterprise payment and settlement services throughout Latin America, the United States, and Asia.
Galactic Holdings owns VelaFi, a stablecoin-based financial infrastructure startup. It has raised $20 million in a Series B financing to help its enterprise payments and settlement services grow in Latin America, the United States, and Asia.
VelaFi entered the Japanese market in October and announced that it would help organise the Stablecoin Settlement Association, which aims to modernise the financial infrastructure. On Monday, XVC and Ikuyo led the round. With this round, the company has now raised more than $40 million.
Stablecoin-focused enterprise infrastructure
Founded in 2020, VelaFi provides payment infrastructure that connects stablecoin protocols, global transfer networks, and local banking institutions. It offers fiat on- and off-ramps, cross-border payments, foreign exchange procedures, and multi-currency treasury operations through its platform and APIs.
The company stated that it will utilise the new funds to expand into new regions and secure additional licenses. The company also plans to enhance its payment and settlement systems for cross-border operations.
Entry into Japan and trade finance initiatives
The startup joined the Japanese market in October and said it will help organize the Stablecoin Settlement Association, which aims to modernize the country’s trade finance system.
VelaFi is mostly about stablecoin payments for businesses, but stablecoins are also becoming more popular for personal use in Latin America. This is because inflation is high and the region depends on remittances.
According to a Chainalysis study, more than half of all purchases of Colombian pesos, Argentine pesos, and Brazilian reals on exchanges from July 2024 to the end of June 2025 were for stablecoins.
What the central bank sees and what institutions do
In February 2025, Gabriel Galipolo, the president of the Central Bank of Brazil, said that most of the country’s crypto activity is in stablecoins. He believed that tokens pegged to the dollar account for over 90% of all crypto transactions.
At the same time, institutional interest in the area has continued to grow. In November, Tether, the business that makes the largest stablecoin by market capitalization, put money into Parfin, a company based in London and Rio de Janeiro. This measure was implemented to enhance USDT’s prominence as a USDT$1 instrument within the institutional digital asset market across Latin America.
Some central banks have said that people shouldn’t use stablecoins, even if they are becoming increasingly popular in the area. The central bank of Mexico has indicated that stablecoins could be bad for financial stability since they are growing quickly, becoming more connected to the existing financial system, and there are regulatory gaps that could allow arbitrage and make market stress worse.