{"id":50056,"date":"2026-01-22T12:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-22T17:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/?p=50056"},"modified":"2026-01-22T12:40:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-22T17:40:23","slug":"bitcoin-payments-startup-zbd-raises-40m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/news\/bitcoin-payments-startup-zbd-raises-40m","title":{"rendered":"Bitcoin Payments Startup ZBD Raises $40M to Build Gaming Payments Rails"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bitcoin payments startup ZBD has raised $40 million in a Series C funding round as it looks to expand blockchain-based payment infrastructure for the video game industry, Fortune<\/em> reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The New Jersey\u2013based company, which provides payments software for game developers, was led in the round by Blockstream Capital. The crypto investment firm contributed $36 million, according to cofounder and CEO Simon Cowell, who spoke with Fortune<\/em>.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cowell declined to disclose the company\u2019s valuation or name the other investors involved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The platform allows video game developers to integrate payments directly into games, enabling transactions such as peer-to-peer transfers, loyalty rewards, and Bitcoin payouts without relying on third-party fintech providers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cWe\u2019re talking about a payment solution for the entire industry that actually really enables them to have a direct financial relationship to the player,\u201d Cowell said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fundraise comes at a time when enthusiasm for crypto gaming has cooled. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once touted as a major use case for blockchain technology, crypto-based gaming \u2014 particularly NFT-driven models \u2014 has struggled to gain mainstream traction since the 2021\u20132022 bull market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ZBD has deliberately avoided NFTs and crypto-native gameplay, instead focusing on payments, an area that has seen more concrete adoption, especially as stablecoins gain attention from firms like Stripe and banks including JPMorgan Chase, according to Fortune<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Founded by Cowell alongside Andr\u00e9 Neves and Christian Moss, ZBD centers its technology on Bitcoin rather than stablecoins. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the company positions itself as a broader payments provider, allowing developers to keep users within their ecosystems rather than routing transactions through external services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the startup is not yet profitable and declined to share revenue figures, Cowell said the company worked with 55 games in 2025 and currently employs about 70 people.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The newly raised capital will be used to expand ZBD\u2019s payments product suite over the coming year, Fortune<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ZBD\u2019s bitcoin rewards<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

ZBD integrated<\/a> Bitcoin rewards into TapNation\u2019s mobile game Idle Bank <\/em>last year, marking the first mainstream mobile game to deliver Lightning Network payouts, which boosted 30-day player retention by 355% and revenue per player by 124%. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The company, originally testing Bitcoin rewards with a modded Counter-Strike<\/em> server, developed an SDK and API that allow game developers to seamlessly add Bitcoin rewards while addressing cybersecurity and fraud concerns. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

ZBD\u2019s model turns ad revenue into Bitcoin payouts for players, increasing engagement and monetization, and has already driven significant growth for games like Bitcoin Miner<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bitcoin payments startup ZBD raised $40M to expand blockchain payment infrastructure for games, focusing on Bitcoin rewards and integration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3817,"featured_media":50057,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4378],"tags":[1724,1604,523,1128],"class_list":{"0":"post-50056","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-bitcoin-gaming","9":"tag-fundraiser","10":"tag-gaming","11":"tag-zbd"},"author_data":{"id":3817,"name":"Micah Zimmerman","nicename":"micahzimmerman","avatar_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Micah_Zimmerman_Author_Image.jpg"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Bitcoin-Payments-Startup-ZBD-Raises-40M-to-Build-Gaming-Payments-Rails.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3817"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}