Fasset becomes a stablecoin unicorn after $68 million raise led by SBI Group

Fasset, a stablecoin-focused neobanking platform, raised $68 million in a Series C round led by Japan's SBI Group, valuing the company at $1 billion and pushing it into unicorn territory, The Block reported.

The Los Angeles-based company said in a statement shared with The Block that it will use the funding to expand Own Network, its regulated financial infrastructure connecting banks, payment providers, liquidity providers, and other financial institutions across more than 100 banking corridors. Fasset also plans to invest in AI-enabled systems for corridor banking, stablecoin settlement, and tokenized assets. Traditional cross-border transfers typically route through a chain of correspondent banks, and each link in that chain adds fees and settlement delay measured in days rather than minutes. Own Network aims to replace that chain with a single regulated network where stablecoins settle transactions directly between the connected institutions.

“The next phase is about any-to-any banking. Any person to any person. Any asset to any asset. Any rail to any rail, anywhere.”

— Mohammad Raafi Hossain, Fasset CEO

Hossain's framing describes Own Network's intended endpoint: a settlement layer where a bank in one corridor can exchange value with an institution in another without both first joining the same correspondent chain.

• $68 million raised in Series C, led by SBI Group
• $1 billion valuation, Fasset's first as a unicorn
• Funding targets expansion of Own Network across 100+ banking corridors
• Total 2026 funding reaches $119 million after May's $51 million Series B

Unicorn valuations in crypto have often gone to trading venues or token issuers whose worth tracks the market they operate in. Fasset's valuation instead rests on regulated payment infrastructure and long-term corridor relationships, a profile closer to a fintech neobank than a typical crypto startup, and one reason SBI Group, a diversified financial group rather than a crypto-only fund, chose to lead the round.

The round follows a $51 million Series B in May, bringing Fasset's total funding raised in 2026 to $119 million. SBI Group already backs Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin rollout in Japan, and its stake in Fasset extends that same bet on stablecoin settlement infrastructure. The overlap signals that at least one major investor sees stablecoin rails as permanent financial infrastructure rather than a passing product cycle tied to crypto market swings.

Total USD-pegged stablecoin supply has grown past $290 billion, according to The Block's data dashboard. Tether's USDT accounts for more than $183 billion of that figure, and Circle's USDC holds $73.6 billion. Stablecoin rails increasingly plug into card networks rather than replace them: Rain CEO Farooq Malik said last week that stablecoin payments the company facilitates already reach more than 100,000 merchants through Visa's network, with transactions settling in about three days.

In Hong Kong, Standard Chartered-backed Anchorpoint began a phased rollout of its HKD-backed stablecoin HKDAP on August 12, targeting cross-border payments and the settlement of tokenized real-world assets. Each of these moves points to the same shift: banks and payment networks are building stablecoin settlement into infrastructure they already run, rather than treating it as a separate rail investors have to adopt from scratch.

Nothing here should be taken as financial advice — just information to consider.