Circle agreed to acquire Singapore cross-border payments firm Tazapay, adding $25 billion in annualized volume and payout rails across more than 100 markets to expand USDC's reach in cross-border commerce.
"Stablecoin settlement is becoming core infrastructure in the global economy, and combining USDC with Tazapay's world-class banking relationships, local payout rails, and institutional customer base will accelerate worldwide USDC adoption," Jeremy Allaire, co-founder, chief executive officer and chairman at Circle, said in a statement.
Tazapay processes more than $25 billion in annualized payment volume and serves more than 60 banking and fintech partners with local payout rails across more than 100 markets. Stablecoins account for about 60 percent of that volume, Circle said. The Singapore-based firm reported $10 billion in annualized volume in August 2025, when Circle and XRP-issuer Ripple joined its Series B round that brought total funding to $57.9 million, according to Traxcn data.
The deal, expected to close in 2027 pending customary conditions and approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, is the latest step in Circle's push to make USDC the default rail for cross-border payments. Tazapay has been a design partner for Circle's Payments Network since 2025, and its customers should see no disruption to services, APIs, pricing or support, Circle said.
Circle, which lists on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker CRCL, did not disclose financial terms. Its shares were down more than 2 percent in Tuesday premarket trading, according to Yahoo Finance.
The acquisition folds Tazapay's banking relationships and local payout infrastructure into Circle's own network, letting USDC-denominated transactions originate and terminate near-instantly around the clock across Asia-Pacific and emerging markets, where demand for dollar stablecoins is rising. "This acquisition will increase Circle's capability to originate and terminate payments globally, near-instant and 24/7, which is a meaningful step toward making USDC the default payment rail for cross-border commerce," Irfan Ganchi, senior vice president of payments at Circle, said.
For Tazapay, the deal hands its infrastructure to a USDC issuer with the regulatory standing to scale it. "Circle has the dollar infrastructure in USDC and the regulatory standing to take what we've built further than we could alone," Rahul Shinghal, co-founder and chief executive officer of Tazapay, said.
The transaction lands as stablecoin issuers compete to capture cross-border settlement flows that banks have long dominated, with Tether and incumbent payment networks vying for the same corridors. MAS approval will determine whether the deal closes on schedule in 2027. If completed, the combination would give USDC a direct route into more than 100 payout markets, a scale advantage that could surface in stablecoin supply and transaction metrics tracked by DefiLlama in the quarters after closing.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.