Ark Labs Raises $5.2M Backed by Tether to Build Programmable Finance on Bitcoin
Bitcoin is reshaping global markets and deserves the programmable infrastructure that modern financial applications require. Today, we're announcing a $5.2M seed round to build it, with partners who share that conviction.
The round includes Tether, Ego Death Capital, Epoch VC, Lion26, Sats Ventures and Contribution Capital, with participation from Anchorage Digital, Ralph Ho (former VP of Finance at PayPal), and other digital asset and fintech leaders. Tether's involvement is particularly meaningful: the largest stablecoin issuer in the world betting on Bitcoin-native infrastructure signals where this market is heading.
The raise brings our total institutional backing to $7.7M, following a pre-seed round backed by Draper Associates, Fulgur Ventures, and Axiom Capital.
We're building the foundation of open financial infrastructure on Bitcoin, enabling instant, programmable transactions for wallets, fintechs, and financial institutions. Arkade delivers an open, neutral, and scalable execution layer designed to power the next generation of commerce, retail payments, neobanks and financial applications.
Bitcoin is the most liquid digital asset in the world, but it has lacked the programmable infrastructure that financial applications require. Our technology changes that. Our partners are building payments, lending, and digital assets solutions on Bitcoin, and Tether's involvement will be key to accelerate these efforts.
Stablecoins and Digital Assets on Arkade
This round coincides with the launch of stablecoin and digital asset support on Arkade. Partners can now issue, transfer, and settle tokenized assets directly on Bitcoin with the same instant execution and programmable controls that Arkade provides for native bitcoin transactions.
Embedded Finance on Bitcoin
Commerce and retail payments demand more than simple value transfer. Authorization, holds, conditional terms, escrow: these programmable operations are table stakes for any serious payment network. The same primitives power emerging use cases in autonomous commerce, where AI agents need enforceable spending constraints and conditional execution to transact safely on behalf of users. Arkade brings those programmable tools to wallets, fintechs, and asset issuers with instant execution and Bitcoin settlement guarantees.
"Stablecoins were born on Bitcoin, and expanding access on the Bitcoin network remains a priority for us," said Paolo Ardoino, CEO of Tether. "Ark Labs is building infrastructure that makes it easier to issue, move, and settle stablecoins directly on Bitcoin. Improving access to USD₮ on the most secure and widely recognized blockchain supports greater financial inclusion, more efficient cross-border payments, and stronger global liquidity."
What's Next
The capital will accelerate team expansion across developer relations and product, partner onboarding, and the developer tooling needed to bring stablecoin and Bitcoin liquidity together at production scale.
Instant execution. Programmable payments, lending, capital markets, digital assets, and autonomous commerce. Bitcoin is the most liquid, most trusted digital asset in the world. It's time it had the infrastructure to match. We're building it.
If you're building on Bitcoin, say [email protected]
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