#美国民主党BlueVault A quiet revolution in financial infrastructure is unfolding across Latin America, and Chinese internet giants are accelerating their expansion.
January 12, 2026, the stablecoin financial infrastructure platform VelaFi announced the completion of a $20 million Series B funding round, bringing its total funding to over $40 million. Among this impressive list of investors, the appearance of Alibaba Investment, an investment arm of Alibaba Group, stood out as the most significant signal. This not only marks the first deep involvement of a Chinese internet giant in the Latin American stablecoin sector but also reveals the ambitions of global e-commerce giants toward the next generation of cross-border payment systems.
Alibaba’s Strategy: The E-commerce Giant’s Stablecoin Playbook
As the world’s largest B2B and B2C trading platform, Alibaba deeply understands the pain points of cross-border payments. Under the traditional cross-border payment system, high fees (typically 2-3%), settlement cycles lasting several days, and exchange rate volatility have long constrained the globalization of small and medium-sized enterprises. VelaFi’s stablecoin infrastructure precisely addresses these pain points—enabling instant settlement, costs below 0.5%, and elimination of exchange rate risks.
Notably, the markets VelaFi has deeply cultivated—Mexico and Brazil—are precisely the key growth regions that AliExpress and Alibaba International have recently focused on. Data shows Latin America’s cryptocurrency adoption rate has reached 12.1%, with 57.7 million crypto holders, of whom stablecoins account for 39% of all crypto purchases. By investing in VelaFi, Alibaba likely aims to explore a path to optimize local payment and merchant settlement experiences in emerging markets using stablecoin technology, thereby building a more efficient payment moat for its e-commerce platforms.
"This is not just a simple financial investment, but a strategic positioning." A cross-border payment industry analyst noted, "While competitors are still relying on the traditional SWIFT system, Alibaba is already building an instant settlement network based on blockchain."
The Geopolitical Logic Behind the Prestigious Investor Lineup
This round of funding was led by XVC and Ikuyo, representing a paradigm of collaboration between Eastern and Western capital.
XVC, a dual-currency fund management firm headquartered in Beijing, has partners including Hu Boyu, who successfully invested in star projects like Kuaishou, Weee!, and Bawang Cha Ji. XVC’s entry not only brings Chinese domestic resource networks to VelaFi but also signals Chinese capital’s recognition of the 'technology export + compliance infrastructure' model.
Ikuyo, a Tokyo-listed company, has an even deeper connection with VelaFi. Back in November 2025, when VelaFi entered the Japanese market, the two parties had already established a strategic partnership to jointly form a stablecoin settlement association. This new investment reflects strong confidence from traditional Japanese financial institutions in stablecoin cross-border settlement scenarios.
Meanwhile, continued follow-on investments from existing shareholders such as Planetree (a company affiliated with Alibaba partners) and BAI Capital have proven through real capital that VelaFi’s business model is sustainable. This architecture—'Chinese capital + Japanese industrial resources + Latin American market + global compliance'—is reshaping the investment paradigm for crypto infrastructure.
Who is VelaFi? How did a Chinese team conquer Latin America
VelaFi did not emerge out of nowhere. As a brand under Galactic Holdings, it was founded by a Chinese founder team, with CEO Maggie Wu also being the founder of the renowned venture capital firm Krypital Group. In 2025, the original enterprise-level business TruBit Business was rebranded as VelaFi, marking its strategic leap from a simple payment tool to a financial infrastructure platform.
Galactic Holdings’ ecosystem strategy is highly ambitious:
• TruBit: Leading crypto wallet in Latin America
• TruBit Pro: Professional trading platform
• VelaFi: Enterprise-grade cross-border payment solution
To date, VelaFi has served over 500 global enterprises, processing billions in payment transactions, with operations spanning Latin America, the United States, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Its LinkedIn page shows the company is actively participating in the first-ever Stablecoin Conference in Latin America 2025, and has formed a strategic partnership with World Liberty Financial to strengthen global liquidity.
Core Model: Embedding Stablecoins into the Real Economy
VelaFi’s business model rests on three pillars:
1. Compliance First
All enterprise clients must pass strict KYC/KYB verification, setting a benchmark in the crypto industry’s 'compliance anxiety'. The company is actively applying for licenses in the U.S. and Asia to build a 'compliance moat' as a competitive barrier.
2. Free Fiat-to-Stablecoin Exchange
Deposit side: End users pay in local fiat currency, and enterprises receive stablecoins such as USDT or USDC.
Withdrawal side: Enterprises send stablecoins, and VelaFi uses local banking networks to deposit fiat into user accounts.
3. Accelerator for Traditional Payment Rails
This is VelaFi’s most profound innovation—deep integration with major real-time payment systems in Mexico (SPEI), Brazil (PIX), and Colombia (PSE), linking stablecoin liquidity to existing banking rails. For example, a Mexican company pays in pesos, and a Brazilian supplier receives reais directly, with stablecoins flowing instantly in between—without either party needing to interact with cryptocurrency.
This model ensures that crypto assets are no longer floating on the blockchain, but truly embedded in cross-border e-commerce, labor outsourcing, and international trade scenarios. As Maggie Wu stated at the Stablecoin Conference: "Stablecoins are no longer promises, but realities. The question is not whether enterprises will adopt them, but when."
Latin America: The Ideal Testing Ground for Crypto Payments
Why has Latin America become a fertile ground for stablecoins? Three key drivers:
• Inflation hedging: Currencies like the Argentine peso and Venezuelan bolívar have suffered massive depreciation; stablecoins serve as a store of value
• Payment efficiency: Cross-border remittance costs are the highest globally; stablecoins reduce fees by over 90%
• Capital control circumvention: In regions with strict foreign exchange controls, stablecoins provide a legal channel for value transfer
From 2024 to 2025, the Latin American crypto gateway market grew by 35% year-on-year, with Brazil and Argentina leading global adoption rates. While traditional financial institutions are still watching, infrastructure players like VelaFi have already built a 'subterranean railway'.
Competitive Landscape and Challenges
VelaFi faces more than just opportunities. Globally, Circle (the issuer of USDC) has raised over $400 million, Fireblocks has built an institutional-grade custody network, and traditional payment giants like Stripe now support USDC payments. However, in Latin America’s fragmented market, the 'heavy model' of deep integration with local payment systems has become a barrier.
Challenges are also evident:
• Regulatory uncertainty: Different countries have varying stances on stablecoins, and policy risks remain
• Banking relationships: Reliant on local banking networks, requiring continuous maintenance of partnerships
• Technical risks: Significant investments required in cross-chain liquidity management and anti-money laundering technology
When Chinese speed meets Latin American demand
VelaFi’s rise reveals a profound trend: the competition in crypto infrastructure is no longer the domain of tech enthusiasts alone, but a convergence of traditional giants, Chinese entrepreneurs, and genuine demand from emerging markets. Alibaba’s investment is not merely a financial calculation—it’s a strategic defense for its e-commerce ecosystem; the execution capability of the Chinese team makes complex compliance and technology implementation feasible; and the real demand in Latin America provides the most fertile ground for all this.
The $20 million Series B funding is just the beginning. As stablecoin payments evolve from a 'nice-to-have' to a 'must-have', can VelaFi become the Western Union of the bridge between fiat and crypto? Time will tell.
What do you think about the future of stablecoin cross-border payments? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments! If you find this article valuable, please like and share it with more friends. Follow our account to get the latest insights on global fintech. Your every comment could inspire our next topic! #Strategy增持比特币 #美国CPI数据即将公布 #美国非农数据低于预期 #比特币2026年价格预测 $BTC
