Key takeaways
Cyclops announced a $20 million Series A led by Nava Ventures, with Castle Island Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Circle Ventures, F-Prime Capital and GPT Ventures participating.
Alex Wilson says Nava and GPT Ventures made Cyclops their only crypto or stablecoin investment because it specializes in the payments industry.
Wilson estimates about 1% of money moves on stablecoin rails today and expects supply and volumes to take off if a company reaches 5%.
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Summary
Co-founder Alex Wilson says investors who were wary of crypto backed Cyclops because it builds stablecoin rails only for payments companies.
Cyclops, which builds stablecoin infrastructure for payments companies, announced a $20 million Series A on July 15, 2026. Nava Ventures led the round, with Castle Island Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Circle Ventures, F-Prime Capital and GPT Ventures participating. Co-founder Alex Wilson says the company was founded in August 2025, raised its seed in October 2025 and came out of stealth in March 2026.
Investors who avoid crypto
Alex Wilson says one Nava Ventures partner wrote "crypto" as an allergy on an intake form at a crypto event. He says Nava and GPT Ventures chose Cyclops as their only crypto or stablecoin investment, and probably the only one they make anytime soon, because it focuses on one industry and has a clearer differentiator. Kevin Chenault of Nava has joined the board, and Javier Perez of GBT Ventures, a former Mastercard leader and Adyen seed investor, is involved.
“They sent out a form asking, like, if you're allergic to anything. And one of their partners said crypto, which is hilarious because they were at a crypto event.”
Alex WilsonOne integration for payments
Wilson says Cyclops offers one integration that replaces five or six vendor relationships across settlement, payouts, FX, treasury and licensing. The company reports a 300,000-merchant network, 350 percent month-over-month volume growth and 100-plus global licenses. Shift4 Payments is a client, and Cyclops is a member of the Mastercard Crypto Program.
Weak dollar rails abroad
Alex Wilson says he did not realize how bad US dollar rails are outside the US, pointing to companies in Africa that want access to dollars. Cyclops works with Yellow Card on African flows and sees OpenFX as a strategic partner for FX and treasury management use cases. He calls the banking system not running 24/7 the simple problem stablecoin infrastructure exists to solve.
The Giving Block playbook
Wilson says Cyclops is running the The Giving Block playbook for a different industry: a vertically integrated product built for one sector, as it was for nonprofits. He cites that company's path to 80 to 90 percent market share as the model, and says Mastercard and Visa covering stablecoins in earnings calls builds credibility.
Cyclops has 30 people and plans to roughly double to about 60 by the end of the year. Wilson puts stablecoin use at about 1% of money moving today, which leaves room for the company to grow if he is right that 5% would make supply and volumes take off.
Cyclops, Mastercard, The Giving Block, and OpenFX come up most.
- People
- Alex Wilson
- Javier Perez
- Kevin Chenault
- Drew Rogers
- Zach Fowler
- Companies
- Cyclops
- Mastercard
- The Giving Block
- OpenFX
- Visa Inc
- Yellow Card
- Adyen
- Castle Island Ventures
- Shift4 Payments
- Circle
- Coinbase
- Discover
- Global Payments
- Gravy
- Spreedly
- UNO
- Worldpay
- Nava Ventures
- GPT Ventures
- Circle Ventures
- Coinbase Ventures
- F-Prime Capital
- American Express
- Dfns
- Dragonfly Capital
- Hopnow
- Multicoin Capital
- Save the Children
- St. Jude
