Cyclops raises $20M Series A for stablecoin settlement infrastructure

By Camila Grigera Naón Wed, July 15, 2026 at 6:00 AM PDT | 3 min read

The advent of stablecoins has made it possible to settle global transactions instantly, but many payment providers have yet to catch up, relying instead on legacy banking infrastructure. As a result, many merchants and consumers must depend on wire transfers that do not operate on weekends or outside banking hours.

Miami-based startup Cyclops plans to change this. On Wednesday, the company announced a $20 million Series A funding round to help more payment providers begin moving money at internet speed.

Cyclops sells an all-in-one infrastructure platform to payments companies, bundling crypto and stablecoin services so they can offer faster settlement and cross-border transactions without building that tooling themselves.

"There's tons of businesses and consumers that benefit from that… they want to put that cash to work as quickly as possible," said Cyclops co-CEO Alex Wilson, who launched the company along with cofounders Pat Duffy and David Johnson.

Funding Details

• Lead investor: Nava Ventures
• Additional investors: Castle Island Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Circle, Lasagna Ventures, and GPT Ventures
• Valuation: Not disclosed
• Previous funding: $8 million seed round raised in March 2026

Charity Origins

Cyclops' origin story dates back to 2018, when Wilson and Duffy cofounded their first company, the Giving Block. Like Cyclops, it provided crypto and stablecoin services but specialized in the charity sector. Since digital assets did not have the same popularity they do today, Wilson recalled how challenging it was to convince charities to fundraise with crypto donations. Over time, they persuaded clients like Save the Children and St. Jude to give crypto a try.

Eventually, the cofounders sold the Giving Block to payments company Shift4, where Wilson became the head of crypto and stablecoins. There, he had to figure out how to bring stablecoin settlement to the company's more than 300,000 merchants. In building out the different solutions needed for each customer, Wilson and his cofounders realized it was time to build a one-stop-shop focused solely on payments.

In an already cluttered marketplace, Nava Ventures partner Kevin Chenault is convinced that this experience separates Cyclops from its competitors.

"They've lived and breathed the problem in payments and understand the gaps where stablecoin technology and infrastructure can really… innovate the way in which money is moved," he said.

Operations and Clients

• Offices: Miami, Florida, and Vienna, Austria
• Licensing: Processes underway in the United States and Europe, with plans to follow consumer demand globally
• Current clients: Shift4 Payments and Mastercard

Stablecoin Market Context

Stablecoins have become one of crypto's most transformative inventions. These digital tokens, pegged to fiat currencies and issued by companies rather than a central bank, have proliferated globally. Behemoths like Tether's USDT and Circle's USDC dominate the marketplace.

• Since 2024, stablecoin market capitalization has grown 137%, reaching nearly $310 billion, according to data from DefiLlama.
• In July 2025, President Donald Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law, creating a regulatory framework for U.S. dollar-backed stablecoins.

Against this backdrop, GPT Ventures general partner Javier Pérez, who spent nearly 25 years at Mastercard, sees stablecoins as the next natural step in payments.

"You can transfer money around quasi-instantly and the more [a] stablecoin becomes popular…"