Cyclops raises $20m Series A to help payments firms launch stablecoin products faster

Cyclops, a stablecoin infrastructure company built for the payments industry, has raised $20m in Series A funding. The point for high-risk PSPs is simple: the company is pitching a single platform for settlement, pay-ins and payouts, aimed at cutting the usual vendor sprawl that slows stablecoin launches.

1. The round was led by Nava Ventures, with backing from Castle Island Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Circle, Lasagna Ventures and Global PayTech Ventures, the firm run by Javier Perez, the former Mastercard president and a founding investor in Adyen. As part of the deal, Nava Ventures’ Kevin Chenault has joined the Cyclops board.
2. Cyclops says payments firms have strong appetite for stablecoins, but legacy providers make it difficult to expand those initiatives quickly. Its answer is a purpose-built platform that covers the full workflow, so companies do not have to stitch together multiple vendors before launching.
3. The company says customers can launch offerings within weeks instead of months or years. For PSPs, that matters because the time gap between product intent and live processing is often where stablecoin projects lose momentum.
4. The business was founded by Alex Wilson, Pat Duffy and David Johnson. Wilson and Duffy previously built The Giving Block, later acquired by Shift4, and then ran the crypto and stablecoin division there for close to four years. Johnson, an international technology lawyer, designed Cyclops’ global licensing strategy.
5. Cyclops says it has built a merchant network of 300,000, expanded into new markets internationally, and increased volume by 350% month on month. Its team has grown to 31 people in under a year, and headcount is expected to double by the end of 2026. The new capital will go into faster product development, local teams and licensing, and scaling go-to-market.

For high-risk payment businesses, the useful detail here is not just the funding size. It is the combination of licensing, settlement, pay-ins and payouts in one stack, plus a team that is explicitly targeting payments rather than treating stablecoins as a side project.