Mesh Crypto Unicorn Soars with $75M Dragonfly Funding, Transforming Global Payments Infrastructure

San Francisco-based cryptocurrency payments infrastructure provider Mesh has officially entered the coveted unicorn club, securing a monumental $75 million Series C funding round led by Dragonfly Capital that values the company at $1 billion. This strategic investment, announced on Tuesday, marks a pivotal moment for crypto adoption in mainstream finance, particularly as regulatory frameworks like the GENIUS Act reshape the stablecoin landscape. The funding will fuel Mesh’s aggressive expansion across Latin America, Asia, and Europe, directly targeting regions with massive remittance flows and growing digital asset adoption.

Mesh Crypto Unicorn Emerges from Strategic $75M Funding Round

Dragonfly Capital spearheaded the investment round with significant participation from Paradigm, Moderne Ventures, SBI Investment, Coinbase Ventures, and Liberty City Ventures. Consequently, this brings Mesh’s total funding to over $200 million since its 2020 founding. Notably, a portion of the raised capital was settled using stablecoins, demonstrating the practical utility of the very infrastructure Mesh builds. The company operates a sophisticated network that seamlessly connects cryptocurrency exchanges, digital wallets, and traditional financial platforms.

This interoperability allows consumers to pay using any digital asset while ensuring merchants receive instant settlement in their preferred stablecoin or fiat currency. Mesh reports that through its extensive partner integrations, its technology now reaches a potential user base exceeding 900 million people worldwide. The recent expansion into India highlights this strategy, targeting the country’s tech-savvy population and its enormous annual remittance market, which surpasses $125 billion.

The Evolving Landscape of Crypto Payments Infrastructure

The passage of the GENIUS Act in the United States has catalyzed a wave of investment into stablecoin and payments infrastructure. Companies are rapidly positioning themselves to capitalize on the anticipated surge in dollar-backed token usage for both domestic payments and cross-border settlements. This regulatory clarity provides a more stable foundation for ventures like Mesh to scale their operations globally. Furthermore, the overall stablecoin market has experienced explosive growth, ballooning to $308.3 billion in January 2025 from $204.8 billion just a year prior—a staggering increase of approximately 51% according to DeFiLlama data.

This growth underscores a massive market opportunity. Several other infrastructure providers have also secured significant funding, indicating strong investor confidence in the sector’s future.

• Stripe’s Tempo: Raised $500 million in a Series A, valuing its new stablecoin-optimized layer-1 blockchain at $5 billion.
• Rain: A U.S. stablecoin infrastructure firm, secured $250 million in a Series C, achieving a $1.95 billion valuation.
• VelaFi: Closed a $20 million Series B, bringing its total funding to over $40 million.

Expert Insight: Payments Enter a Software-Driven Era

Rob Hadick, General Partner at Dragonfly Capital, provided critical context for the investment. “Payments are entering a new era where value moves as software,” Hadick stated. “Mesh is building the interoperability layer that makes crypto practical at scale: consumers can spend any asset, merchants can settle instantly in the stablecoin or fiat they want, and the complexity stays under the hood.” This expert perspective highlights the core innovation—abstracting technical complexity to deliver a smooth, familiar user experience, which is essential for mass adoption.

Strategic Expansion and Real-World Application

Mesh plans to deploy the new capital across three primary areas: geographic expansion, product development, and network enhancement. The focus on Latin America, Asia, and Europe is deliberate. These regions represent hubs for international remittances, where traditional banking rails are often slow and expensive. Crypto-powered solutions can offer faster, cheaper alternatives. For instance, a worker in Europe could send funds to family in Latin America nearly instantly using Mesh’s connected network, with the recipient receiving local currency without manual conversion.

The company’s model reduces friction at every step. A user does not need to hold the specific asset a merchant accepts. Instead, Mesh’s infrastructure handles the conversion in the background. This approach mirrors the experience of using a modern digital bank or payment app but leverages the global, 24/7 nature of blockchain networks. The expansion follows a clear product-market fit strategy, targeting economies with high mobile penetration and a demonstrated appetite for financial innovation.

Conclusion

Mesh’s ascent to crypto unicorn status with its $75 million Dragonfly-led Series C is a significant milestone for the entire digital assets industry. It signals robust investor belief in the future of blockchain-based payments and stablecoin utility. By building critical interoperability infrastructure, Mesh addresses a fundamental barrier to crypto’s everyday use. Its planned expansion into key global markets, backed by substantial capital and strategic partnerships, positions the company at the forefront of a financial transformation where borders matter less and digital value transfer becomes as seamless as sending a message.

FAQs

Q1: What is Mesh and what does it do?
Mesh is a cryptocurrency payments infrastructure company. It provides a network that connects different exchanges, wallets, and financial platforms, allowing users to pay with one type of digital asset while merchants get paid in their chosen currency, all automatically.

Q2: Why is Mesh considered a ‘crypto unicorn’?
A ‘unicorn’ is a privately-held startup valued at over $1 billion. Following its $75 million Series C funding round led by Dragonfly Capital, Mesh’s valuation reached $1 billion, earning it this designation in the cryptocurrency sector.

Q3: How does the GENIUS Act relate to Mesh’s funding?
The GENIUS Act provides a regulatory framework for stablecoins in the U.S. This clarity reduces uncertainty for investors and companies building payment systems using dollar-backed tokens, making the sector more attractive for major investments like Mesh’s Series C round.

Q4: Where will Mesh expand with the new funding?
Mesh plans to use the funds to expand its crypto payments network across Latin America, Asia, and Europe. It has recently entered the Indian market and will focus on regions with high remittance volumes and growing digital finance adoption.

Q5: What is the significance of using stablecoins to settle part of the funding?
Settling a portion of the venture capital investment using stablecoins is a powerful demonstration of real-world utility. It proves the functionality and efficiency of the very payment rails Mesh is building, moving value instantly without traditional banking intermediaries.