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Crypto Payments Firm Merge Raises $9.5M From Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research and Others
Merge plans to bridge the gap between crypto and traditional finance companies with its API payments integration.
Updated May 11, 2023, 4:24 p.m. Published May 30, 2022, 10:00 a.m.
London-based cryptocurrency payments firm Merge has raised a $9.5 million seed round led by Octopus Ventures, as well as Coinbase Ventures, Alameda Research and Hashed.
- Other investors include founders of Aave, Polygon, the CEO of Ledger and the former CEO of Barclays Consumer Banking.
- Merge plans to deploy the capital to ensure that cryptocurrency companies can make payments and work with traditional financial services in a more efficient way.
- "As the crypto economy moves further into the mainstream, it's increasingly clear that the current financial infrastructure isn't fit to serve the rapid expansion of crypto-native businesses and many providers aren't specialized enough to gauge risk," Zihao Xu, investor at Octopus Ventures, said.
- Merge will not only focus on holding and transferring fiat funds for crypto and Web 3 companies, but will also manage compliance through its API.
- The firm shared with CoinDesk that it has several clients lined up, with an announcement expected this quarter.
- Despite a recent market downturn, venture capitalists are continuing to invest in the cryptocurrency industry, with Andreessen Horowitz raising $4.5 billion for a new crypto fund on Wednesday.
- "We see it as a temporary blip," Merge co-founder Kebbie Sebastian told CoinDesk on the current market. "The fundamental potential of cryptocurrency remains the same despite market volatility."
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What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
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Nasdaq, home of Coinbase, Strategy stocks, seeks 23-hour trading amid investor demand
Crypto's 24/7 trading has influenced investor expectations, with Nasdaq acknowledging that many of its clients are already active overnight.
What to know:
- Nasdaq plans to expand stock and exchange-traded product trading to 23 hours a day, five days a week, according to a filing.
- The move follows similar initiatives by the New York Stock Exchange and reflects growing global demand for extended market access.
- Always-on cryptocurrency trading has influenced investor expectations, with Nasdaq acknowledging that many of its clients are already active overnight.
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