Align

Align is a stablecoin payments API from Align Labs, a UK company. Businesses use it to swap bank money for stablecoins and back. They can also collect and pay out through bank accounts in their own name. And they can move USDC, USDT and EURC between eight blockchains, Solana among them. Align is a paid service for businesses. It has no token and no on-chain program of its own.

Two other projects share the name. Aligned is an Ethereum project that launched an ALIGN token in August 2026; it has no link to Align. An older Solana DAO tool called Align, from Phase Labs, used the site align.nexus, which no longer loads.

How Align's stablecoin payments API works

A platform signs up, passes business verification (KYB), and then creates "customers" through the API. Each customer goes through its own KYC or KYB check. After that, the platform asks for a quote, accepts it, and Align runs the transfer. Webhooks report each status change.

The API reference splits the work into a few resources:

• Onramp and offramp transfers, each priced from a quote
• Virtual accounts (named IBANs) and external bank accounts
• Cross-chain transfers and permanent route addresses
• Developer fees, which let a platform add its own margin
• Sandbox simulation endpoints for testing each flow

Onboarding is self-serve, per Align's site, and the company claims settlement in under a minute on local rails and on-chain. That is Align's own figure, not an independent measure.

Align on-ramp and off-ramp: fiat to USDC, USDT and EURC

The on-ramp takes a bank transfer and sends stablecoins to the wallet the customer names. The off-ramp runs the other way: the customer sends stablecoins to an address Align gives them, and Align pays local currency into a bank account.

Four currencies have full support, per the currencies page:

• USD over ACH, Fedwire and SWIFT (the homepage also lists FedNow)
• EUR over SEPA and SEPA Instant
• GBP over Faster Payments
• AED over IPP and UAEFTS

All four work both ways, for third-party payments, and with named IBANs. The docs say over 60 more currencies can be converted. The pricing page says 50+ more are available on request. Check anything past the core four with sales first. The docs also warn that some ways of collecting money "may be restricted amongst some currencies."

Named virtual accounts (vIBANs) for collections and payouts

Align gives each customer a virtual IBAN in their own name. Many payment firms use one shared account in their own name instead. With Align, the payer sees the business's name when they send money. That helps the payer's bank check the name, and it makes it easier to match payments to invoices.

Each virtual account has its own payment history. A platform can give every merchant or user a separate account and track their payments one by one. Circle's partner directory lists these accounts as a main Align feature. It names Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and North America as Align's regions.

Cross-chain stablecoin transfers and deposits, including Solana

Align supports eight chains: Ethereum, Polygon, Optimism, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Base, Solana and Tron. Each stablecoin runs on a different subset, per the chain list:

• USDC runs on every chain except Tron.
• USDT runs on Ethereum, Polygon, Optimism, Arbitrum, Solana and Tron.
• EURC runs on Ethereum, Avalanche, Base and Solana.

Solana is one of only two chains with all three stablecoins (Ethereum is the other).

Cross-chain transfers start with a quote, like ramps. Align does the bridging and any swap, so the customer never touches a bridge. Swaps between USDC, USDT and EURC are a separate product with lower fees.

Permanent route addresses are the more unusual feature. A customer can make deposit addresses on other chains, Solana included, that all forward to one wallet. Per the deposits docs, USDC or USDT sent to a Solana route address is "automatically routed and deposited" into, say, a Polygon wallet. A business paid on many chains can settle on one.

Align fees and pricing

Align charges per transaction, with no monthly fee, setup fee or minimum, per its pricing page. Rates fall across six monthly-volume tiers, from under $2.5 million up to more than $50 million. The same rate applies to collections and payouts.

Align says it converts at the mid-market rate with "no spread added." Platforms can add their own fee on top. The developer fees docs give an example: on a $10,000 cross-chain transfer, Align takes 0.1% and the platform adds 0.5%, so the customer pays 0.6%. These are the published rates as of October 2026.

Yield on stablecoin balances

Align's homepage now advertises "up to 4% a year on USDC and USDT," paid in real time. The API docs still list yield-generating stablecoins as coming soon, and the product page has no details. Neither source says where the yield comes from or who carries the risk. Until Align publishes that, treat the 4% as a marketing headline, not a documented product.

Who Align is for

Align fits fintechs, payroll firms, marketplaces and businesses that trade across borders. It suits teams that want stablecoin ramps and local bank accounts in USD, EUR, GBP or AED inside their own product. They get this without building bank deals themselves. Align's site targets online shops, logistics, importers and exporters, telecom and payroll. It lists Inflow, Acctual, CopperX, Gnosis and Sentra as users.

The developer fee suits platforms that resell payments to their own users. Take a Solana business that is paid in USDC or EURC on Solana and pays suppliers in euros or dirhams. Align removes both the bridge and the separate off-ramp.

There is no consumer app, so Align does not fit retail users. It also does not serve anyone tied to its 19 banned jurisdictions. These include Russia, Iran, Venezuela, Ukraine and Puerto Rico. If you need a currency beyond the core four, confirm support before you build.

Is Align safe? Regulation, custody and risks

Align is a company you have to trust, not a protocol you can verify. It has no on-chain program, audit or upgrade authority to check, because the product is an off-chain service that moves funds through banks and wallets it controls.

Align's terms name the contracting party as Align Labs Ltd, an English company (No. 14583880), under the law of England and Wales. Regulated services come from two subsidiaries and a network of partner institutions:

• Align Payments Ltd, a Canadian money services business
• Intikemp Spzoo, a Polish virtual asset service provider

The partner institutions are not named in the terms. The homepage summarises this as "Regulated in Canada."

The terms call Align non-custodial and "execution-only." It holds no customer accounts or hosted wallets. Its routing wallets "do not represent any Customer balance." Still, money passes through those wallets and partner bank accounts during each transfer. If Align or a partner bank fails, funds in transit could be delayed or lost. Users also take on the risk of each stablecoin's issuer.

Other limits to weigh:

• There is no public audit, status page or incident history.
• Fee details in the docs point to sales rather than the public pricing table.
• The yield product's source of returns is not disclosed.
• We found no public incidents involving Align as of October 2026.

Align vs Bridge, Sphere and other stablecoin APIs

Several companies sell similar ramp and payments APIs on Solana. The best-known is Bridge, owned by Stripe, which handles USD, EUR and Latin American rails. Others include Sphere, Crossmint's on-ramp API, and MoneyGram Ramps for cash in and out.

Align stands out in three ways. Its IBANs are in the customer's own name. It covers UAE dirhams as well as USD, EUR and GBP. And it publishes its fees with no monthly minimum. Its gaps: fewer fully supported currencies, no card or cash options, and a shorter public record than the bigger firms. The practical test is to compare fees and coverage for the routes you actually need.

Align Labs: team, backers and token status

Align Labs was founded in 2023. Its homepage lists Alliance, Gnosis and IOSG Ventures as backers. Align uses Circle USDC$1.000-0.1%'s USDC and EURC and appears in Circle's Alliance partner directory. The public contact in the docs is Pavel ([email protected]), and the team runs a Telegram channel at t.me/buildingalign. Its current X account is @alignfx.

Align has no token. It earns from transaction fees. Any "ALIGN" token on an exchange belongs to Aligned, the unrelated Ethereum project.