Stablecoin startup Agora raises $50 million in funding led by Paradigm and Dragonfly.

In the current global stablecoin market dominated by two giants, the startup Agora has secured $50 million in funding led by Paradigm and co-invested by Dragonfly, to expand internationally with its white label stablecoin AUSD. Founder Nick van Eck emphasized: "We are not trying to create another USDC, but rather to enable every business to issue and own its own stablecoin."

Paradigm led the investment of 50 million USD in Agora, with Dragonfly participating.

The stablecoin startup Agora announced yesterday that it has completed a $50 million Series A financing round, led by crypto venture giant Paradigm, with participation from Dragonfly Capital. The funds will be used to drive the expansion of its core product "white label stablecoin platform AUSD" and accelerate the global deployment of its partners.

We are thrilled to announce that Agora has raised a $50 million Series A round, led by @paradigm and with additional participation from @dragonfly_xyz. This milestone enables us to accelerate the development of Agora’s full-stack platform for stablecoin infrastructure,… pic.twitter.com/AtC4po2iSN

— Agora (@withAUSD) July 10, 2025

Agora was established in April last year and received $12 million in seed funding led by Dragonfly. The team members have impressive backgrounds. Founder Nick van Eck is the son of the CEO of asset management company VanEck, while partners Drake Evans and Joe McGrady have previously served as lending and engineering leads at the stablecoin protocol Frax, and as COO at crypto venture capital firm Galaxy Digital, respectively.

What is a white label stablecoin? AUSD allows businesses to customize and create their own stablecoin.

Unlike USDC or USDT, which are issued under a unified brand, Agora adopts a "white label issuance model (White-labeled)," allowing enterprises or platforms to create their own brand stablecoin based on the AUSD framework. This design not only enhances liquidity integration capabilities but also allows for customized compliance and settlement methods based on different market demands, working together to create a new type of stablecoin platform centered around shared architecture and revenue.

Currently, Agora has partnered with networks such as Ethereum, Solana, and Sui to assist their ecosystem projects in issuing personalized stablecoins. In the future, it will also expand into non-crypto fields, including fintech, payment platforms, and even large institutions. Nick stated:

The innovation of this model lies in the revenue-sharing mechanism. We believe that stablecoins should function like public infrastructure, allowing everyone to benefit from shared liquidity and interoperability.

Still awaiting US regulatory implementation: Agora focuses on seizing opportunities in the international market.

Nick pointed out that even though many companies in the United States are currently discussing stablecoins, Agora will initially focus on the international market, especially emerging countries with significant exchange rate fluctuations or high demand for cross-border payments.

I have noticed that many financial institutions outside of the United States are paying much more attention to stablecoins and may even take action faster than some companies in the U.S.

But he also indicated that he has not given up on the U.S. market. As regulatory frameworks like the GENIUS Act become clearer, the company has begun applying for a money transmission license (MTL) to pave the way for entering the U.S. If the regulatory framework is clear in the future, Agora will be able to quickly initiate local issuance and services.

(From the venture capital stablecoin report, we see the contemporary financial revolution: merchant costs reduced by 99%, AI agents for micro-payments become key )

The stablecoin market is highly competitive, and Agora is entering through institutions and fintech platforms.

Currently, the top two stablecoins in the market, namely Circle's USDC and Tether's USDT, have market capitalizations of 62.5 billion and 160 billion USD respectively, and competition is becoming increasingly fierce. This includes USD1 supported by Trump WLFI, PayPal's PYUSD, and others that have already made their move.

Currently, Agora has a total market capitalization of approximately 15.8 million USD, ranking 32nd in the stablecoin sector, and is rapidly catching up despite the significant gap.

At the beginning of this year, Agora and the asset management company Galaxy completed the first OTC transaction of AUSD, moving from concept to actual application stage, which also expands the application scenarios for AUSD in institutional-level transactions.

As stablecoins become the new infrastructure of crypto finance, Agora offers an open and enterprise-participatory solution, which is expected to carve out a market between traditional institutions and financial startups.

The article states that the stablecoin startup Agora has secured $50 million in financing led by Paradigm and Dragonfly, first appearing in Chain News ABMedia.