CoinDesk
OpenTrade, a London-based stablecoin infrastructure firm backed by a16z Crypto, closed a $17 million funding round led by Mercury Fund and Notion Capital, with participation from a16z Crypto, AlbionVC and CMCC Global. The round brings total funding past $30 million and will fund expansion of both its permissioned and permissionless infrastructure alongside growth in its asset management and trading teams.
The company enables fintechs, exchanges, wallets and institutional clients to offer stablecoin yield products backed by real-world assets. OpenTrade reports $5.67 million in total value locked and says it processed more than $250 million in transaction volume last year — small numbers relative to the wider stablecoin market, but the slot it occupies is scaling fast.
Why it matters
The raise lands as the stablecoin market pushes past $310 billion in supply, with tokenized treasuries, money market funds and short-duration credit emerging as the dominant yield primitives that fintechs want to wrap into their products. OpenTrade's pitch is the middleware layer: regulated, FCA-supervised rails that let a neobank or wallet offer USDT and USDC yield without building the credit, custody and compliance stack from scratch. CEO David Sutter framed it as a way to make institutional-grade yield "pluggable" for non-custodial platforms, treasuries and asset issuers.
That positioning is consistent with what executives from Ondo, Robinhood and Babylon Labs argued at Consensus Miami 2026 — that institutional adoption is real but running along two tracks, with tokenized treasuries and 24/7 settlement providing the clearest near-term advantage over traditional rails.
Market impact
For $USDT and $USDC, the implication is structural rather than immediate: every fintech that wraps a yield product on top of stablecoins expands the addressable demand for holding them, even if the underlying TVL on OpenTrade itself remains modest at $5.67 million. Watch the next round of disclosures for institutional mandates — the real signal is when the asset management team growth converts into named TradFi or neobank distribution deals, not just headline TVL.
Frequently asked questions
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What does OpenTrade do?
OpenTrade provides regulated infrastructure that lets fintechs, exchanges, wallets and neobanks offer stablecoin yield products backed by real-world assets, without building the underlying credit, custody and compliance stack themselves.
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How much did OpenTrade raise and who led the round?
OpenTrade closed a $17 million funding round led by Mercury Fund and Notion Capital, with participation from a16z Crypto, AlbionVC and CMCC Global. The round brings total funding to more than $30 million.
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What is OpenTrade's current TVL and transaction volume?
OpenTrade reports $5.67 million in total value locked and says it processed more than $250 million in transaction volume over the past year.
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Where is OpenTrade based and is it regulated?
OpenTrade is a London-based company operating under FCA regulation, positioning it for institutional and fintech distribution in regulated markets.
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How does this raise fit the broader stablecoin and RWA market?
The raise lands as stablecoin supply exceeds $310 billion, with tokenized treasuries and short-duration credit emerging as the dominant yield primitives fintechs want to wrap. OpenTrade is positioning as the regulated middleware layer connecting stablecoins like USDT and USDC to real-world asset yield strategies.
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