KuCoin invests in Stable, a blockchain startup built for USDT to reinvent global stablecoin payments

KuCoin Ventures is betting on stablecoins—and it’s doing so by backing a blockchain startup that’s building its entire foundation around one. The crypto exchange’s investment arm has made a strategic investment in Stable, a new Layer 1 blockchain built specifically for stablecoin issuance, settlement, and payments.

The pitch is simple: most blockchains are general-purpose. Stable isn’t. It’s being marketed as the first “Stablechain,” and it’s built with USDT as the native asset, not just a token riding on top. That means no need for a separate gas token or complex user flows. Instead, users can send USDT peer-to-peer without paying gas in another coin, a big friction point that has long weighed down mainstream stablecoin usage.

Backing came from a mix of institutional and crypto-native players, including Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino, who’s also advising the project, alongside Bitfinex itself, Hack VC, Franklin Templeton, and KuCoin Ventures.

Where Stable hopes to stand apart is in how it treats stablecoins as a first-class feature—not a layer on top of something else. The project is taking direct aim at the typical headaches in crypto payments: high fees, slow confirmation times, and clunky interfaces. By baking payments into the chain’s core protocol and using StableBFT—a consensus system based on CometBFT from Cosmos—the team believes it can offer smoother, faster transactions out of the box. Down the line, they plan to integrate DAG (Directed Acyclic Graph) architecture to further reduce delays and improve scalability.

Joshua Harding, co-founder and CEO of Stable, sees an opening where others have stalled. “Payments infrastructure around the world needs an overhaul, and traditional methods have failed to achieve fast, reliable, and secure digital payments despite massive demand from consumers across the globe,” Harding said. “Stable was developed to take advantage of the potential behind stablecoins like USDT to offer instant and seamless payments, directly addressing problems with current payment rails. The support we have received from major investors in both crypto and traditional finance shows that they share our vision, one that we are incredibly excited to work alongside them to make a reality.”

Stable isn’t just chasing consumers, either. The platform includes a feature for enterprises to apply for dedicated block space—a move meant to guarantee transaction consistency for high-volume payment use cases. That kind of scalability pitch is likely what drew attention from firms like Franklin Templeton and KuCoin Ventures, who’ve been watching stablecoins gain traction beyond the crypto-native crowd.

Cass Tsai, Head of KuCoin Ventures, sees Stable as a natural fit. “We firmly believe in the long-term potential of stablecoins in global payment ecosystems. Stable, as a high-performance blockchain tailored for USDT, provides a clear path forward for scalable stablecoin circulation, settlement, and cross-border use cases. We look forward to working with the Stable team to advance the development of a global stablecoin clearing and settlement network, and to support the industry’s next growth chapter.”

This investment is another signal that stablecoins—once viewed mainly as dollar-pegged parking spots—are being taken seriously as payment infrastructure. And Stable is betting its future on being the chain that finally gets it right.

In 2024 alone, KuCoin Ventures invested in various blockchain and AI projects, including Uxlink, Opinion Labs, Xion, Lumoz, and more. Many of these projects launched tokens on major exchanges. KuCoin Labs also supported early-stage entrepreneurs through partnerships with industry incubators and hackathons.

Founded in 2017 and based in Seychelles, KuCoin has grown into one of the most widely used platforms in the digital asset space, offering everything from trading and wallets to payments and wealth management tools. Now serving over 37 million users worldwide, KuCoin has built its reputation around ease of use and accessibility. Its impact hasn’t gone unnoticed—Forbes named it one of the “Best Crypto Apps & Exchanges,” and it landed a spot on Hurun’s 2024 list of Top 50 Global Unicorns, a nod to its steady growth and focus on innovation.