Alpaca secures $150 million in funding: A key bridge connecting traditional finance and the crypto world

Financial technology infrastructure provider Alpaca officially announced the completion of a $150 million Series D funding round, with the company’s valuation reaching $1.15 billion. The round was led by well-known venture capital firm Drive Capital, with participation from heavyweight institutions such as Citadel Securities, cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, and the venture capital arm of BNP Paribas.

Alpaca is not a direct-to-consumer trading platform but a “behind-the-scenes hero” providing trading infrastructure for various financial companies. Through API interfaces, it enables partners to easily integrate trading services for multiple assets including stocks, ETFs, cryptocurrencies, and more.

01 Funding Overview

The Series D round raised $150 million, led by Drive Capital. As part of the deal, Drive Capital co-founder and partner Chris Olsen will join Alpaca’s board of directors.

In addition to the lead investor, the participant lineup in this round is quite impressive, including Citadel Securities, Opera Tech Ventures (BNP Paribas), MUFG Innovation Partners (Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group), and Kraken.

Notably, many existing investors also chose to increase their stakes, such as Portage, Horizons Ventures, and Social Leverage. This demonstrates long-term confidence from existing shareholders in the company’s growth trajectory.

Alongside the funding, Alpaca secured a $400 million credit line, further strengthening its balance sheet and providing ample resources for global expansion.

02 Core Business

Alpaca’s core business model is providing embedded finance and brokerage infrastructure. In simple terms, it offers a scalable API that allows other companies to quickly and compliantly provide complex financial services to their users.

The company’s services are extensive, covering stocks, ETFs, options, fixed income products, and cryptocurrencies. Currently, Alpaca has established partnerships with over 300 institutions across more than 40 countries, supporting millions of brokerage accounts.

In its tokenization report, Alpaca disclosed that its technology supports 94% of the tokenized US stocks and ETFs in the entire market. This means that when you trade tokens representing Apple or Tesla stocks on a platform, it is very likely that Alpaca’s technology is powering the process.

03 Industry Impact

Chris Olsen, co-founder of Drive Capital, compares Alpaca to Stripe and Plaid in the financial infrastructure space. He believes Alpaca is redefining how global investment infrastructure operates, building the foundational layer that modern financial institutions will rely on over the next decade.

For the crypto industry, Alpaca’s rise is highly significant. Its key partner Kraken’s participation highlights the strong demand among mainstream cryptocurrency exchanges to connect with traditional financial assets.

Alpaca’s “Instant Tokenization Network,” in collaboration with top real-world asset projects like Solana Foundation and Ondo Finance, is accelerating the integration of traditional assets into blockchain.

04 Use of Funds and Future Plans

Alpaca plans to use the proceeds from this round to strengthen its global investment infrastructure, focusing on serving mature financial institutions and institutional trading clients. The company aims to obtain necessary regulatory licenses in key jurisdictions and establish localized market presence.

Product-wise, Alpaca will continue expanding its asset classes and enhancing institutional-grade trading capabilities. Another focus is to improve cybersecurity and platform resilience to cope with increasingly complex financial networks.

By 2025, Alpaca has achieved several milestones, including becoming a member of Nasdaq, obtaining memberships with US options clearing and fixed income clearinghouses. These accomplishments lay a solid compliance and clearing foundation for its future expansion.

05 Insights and Relevance for Gate Users

Alpaca’s successful funding and business direction clearly indicate a core trend in the financial world: the acceleration of integration between traditional assets and crypto assets through upgrades in technological infrastructure. For users of global trading platforms like Gate, this means a future with a much richer array of tradable asset classes and financial products.

For traders, paying attention to the development of infrastructure providers like Alpaca helps understand the source of market innovation. As more stocks and ETFs are tokenized and circulated in a compliant and efficient manner, platforms like Gate are likely to become key trading venues for these new assets.

Although Alpaca itself does not issue tradable tokens, its role as a critical “pipeline” may catalyze its partners—such as major exchanges and fintech applications—to launch more innovative products, ultimately providing Gate users with more diverse investment options.

Special Note Regarding the Name “Alpaca”

It is important to note that the Alpaca that completed this massive funding round is a US-based fintech infrastructure company (alpaca.markets), and it is completely different from the DeFi lending protocol Alpaca Finance on Binance Smart Chain with the same name.

The ALPACA token issued by the latter is currently traded on multiple exchanges. According to CoinMarketCap data as of January 15, its price is approximately $0.00534. Users should be careful to distinguish between the two to avoid confusion.

Future Outlook

Alpaca CEO Yoshi Yokokawa reaffirmed the company’s mission during the funding announcement: “To open financial services to everyone around the world.” In today’s landscape where the boundaries between traditional finance and the crypto world are increasingly blurred, the infrastructure built by Alpaca is accelerating this vision into reality.

With the injection of $150 million in new capital, this unicorn valued at $1.15 billion will continue to serve as an invisible bridge, profoundly impacting every transaction from Wall Street to crypto exchanges.