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BVNK has secured a strategic investment from Citi Ventures as the stablecoin payments infrastructure provider looks to capitalise on growing institutional adoption of digital dollar-pegged tokens.
The London-based firm, which processes over $20 billion annually for global enterprises including Worldpay, Flywire, and dLocal, enables businesses to send, receive, exchange and store stablecoins and fiat funds across domestic and international payment rails and blockchains.
The investment follows previous backing from Visa, Tiger Global, and Haun Ventures, and comes as the stablecoin market reaches $266 billion in capitalisation, up 30% from the start of 2025, according to DeFi Llama. Payment volumes specifically are estimated to have grown by 56% in 2024 and 60% in 2025, based on year-to-date figures from Visa.
Citi Ventures' investment in BVNK reflects growing institutional interest in stablecoin infrastructure as regulatory frameworks emerge globally. The recent passage of the GENIUS Act in the United States marked the first comprehensive federal stablecoin legislation, requiring issuers to maintain reserves on a 1-to-1 basis backed by liquid assets such as US dollars or short-term Treasuries.
Arvind Purushotham, Head of Citi Ventures
Arvind Purushotham, Head of Citi Ventures, said:
Stablecoins are seeing increased interest in use for settlement of on-chain and crypto asset transactions. We were impressed by BVNK's enterprise-grade infrastructure and their proven track record.
BVNK has been developing back-end infrastructure for stablecoin payments since 2021. The company's platform allows merchants and retailers to accept payments in leading digital currencies through strategic partnerships with Visa, LianLian Global, dLocal and Worldpay.
The firm's product suite includes embedded wallets that enable companies to integrate stablecoin-powered financial services directly into their applications via API, as well as virtual accounts that allow customers to send and receive payments in stablecoins through networks including Swift, ACH and Fedwire.
BVNK was founded by three South African entrepreneurs: Jesse Hemson-Struthers, CEO, Donald Jackson and Chris Harmse. The founding team previously launched CoinDirect, a consumer-facing crypto exchange.
Stablecoins now account for more than 80% of trading volume on major centralised crypto exchanges, with 99% of stablecoin market capitalisation denominated in US dollars, according to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. Bitwise projects the stablecoin market could reach $400 billion during 2025.
The investment comes as Citi research projects stablecoins could reach a multi-trillion-dollar payments market in the coming years, with financial institutions exploring opportunities to integrate the technology into their operations.
BVNK's compliance infrastructure includes proprietary machine learning models designed to prevent and detect financial crimes, with all product offerings incorporating anti-money laundering and know-your-customer regulatory adherence layers.
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