Fasset, a stablecoin-based digital bank, has raised $68 million in a Series C round led by Japan's SBI Group at a $1 billion valuation.

The financing pushed the payments company into unicorn status less than three months after its previous raise. The round also lands as stablecoins shift from trading instruments toward payment rails: global stablecoin supply has grown past $200 billion, payment companies including Visa, Mastercard and PayPal have all added stablecoin settlement or issuance capabilities, and Stripe acquired stablecoin infrastructure firm Bridge in a deal reported at about $1.1 billion.

Fasset becomes a unicorn

Fasset's total fundraising for 2026 has now reached $119 million after its latest Series C round led by SBI Group. The new capital adds to the $51 million the company raised in a Series B round in May. Speedinvest, an early backer, also participated in the round.

The company said the new funding will be used to expand Own Network, which it describes as a regulated Ethereum layer-2 blockchain built on Arbitrum technology. Fasset says the network connects banks, telecom companies, payment firms and liquidity providers across more than 100 banking corridors. The company also plans to develop its AI systems, which route transactions based on cost, speed and availability.

In 2023, Fasset became one of the first companies licensed by Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), the emirate's dedicated virtual asset regulator, which was established in 2022. It has also obtained approvals in Indonesia, Pakistan, Türkiye and Malaysia. In several of those markets, the company has developed Shariah-compliant products linked to stablecoins, gold, equities and sukuk. Two of those licensed markets, Pakistan and Indonesia, rank among the world's largest recipients of worker remittances, and World Bank data shows the average cost of sending money abroad remains well above the 3% target set by the UN Sustainable Development Goals — a gap that stablecoin payment firms have cited as a core use case.

Fasset says it now serves more than 3 million wallets and over 1,000 enterprises across 125 countries. It also reports more than $40 billion in annualized transaction volume.

At the time of its May Series B round, that figure stood at $32 billion.

CEO Mohammad Raafi Hossain, who co-founded the company in 2019 with Daniel Ahmed, said revenue has grown roughly 6x year over year and that Fasset has been profitable for 12 straight months. The company did not disclose absolute revenue or profit figures. Sustained profitability is still uncommon among crypto-focused finance firms, many of which have relied on successive venture rounds.

Why is SBI investing so much in crypto infrastructure?

Fasset's deal is SBI's third Series C investment led since early July, following a $76 million round for market operator EDX Markets on July 7 and a $125 million raise for risk platform Gauntlet two days later. Across those three deals, SBI has committed about $269 million.

The Japanese group already holds stakes in Ripple, Circle and DeFi lender Morpho, and it owns liquidity provider B2C2. Fasset adds stablecoin settlement to SBI's broader portfolio. The buildout is unfolding in a country with one of the clearer stablecoin rulebooks: amendments to Japan's Payment Services Act that took effect in June 2023 allow banks and trust companies to issue stablecoins, and several major Japanese banks have since moved forward with digital asset and stablecoin projects.

Yoshitaka Kitao, chairman and CEO of SBI Holdings (TYO: 8473), said the investment will help connect Japan to faster-growing economies. He said the aim is to make stablecoin payments easier across Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

SBI and Fasset already work together through SBI Remit, SBI's remittance arm, which reaches roughly 470,000 locations and handles bank transfers to about 200 countries. Hossain has said the plan is to connect more payment systems across Japan, Asia and other emerging markets.