HIFI Bridge

HIFI (formerly HIFI Bridge) is a New York-based API platform that enables businesses to move money globally across bank rails and stablecoins, with Solana among its supported settlement networks.

What It Is

HIFI is a composable payments infrastructure platform built for developers and financial teams who need to orchestrate complex money movement at scale. Founded in 2022 as HIFI Bridge by CEO Zach Walsh and COO Mohamed Afifi, the company rebranded to HIFI as it expanded beyond its original bridging focus into a full-stack payments layer.

The platform tagline "Turn money into software" captures its core thesis: that programmable, API-driven stablecoin infrastructure can replace the slow, opaque rails governing traditional cross-border payments. HIFI positions itself not as a consumer product but as the underlying plumbing for fintechs, exchanges, financial institutions, and corporations moving capital at scale.

Core Mechanism

HIFI operates as a stablecoin-agnostic distribution layer. Its API platform exposes four primary capability pillars:

• Inflows: Accept deposits via bank transfers, cards, and digital wallets with configurable fees and settlement logic.
• Controls: Set spending limits, multi-party approvals, and jurisdictional restrictions on capital movement.
• Outflows: Route payments across bank rails (ACH, SEPA, Africa Rail), card networks, wallets, and stablecoin addresses.
• Tokenization: Issue, manage, and redeem real-world assets and cash instruments as on-chain tokens.

Underlying these functions is an orchestration layer that supports conditional transfers, escrow flows, multi-party routing, and multi-chain settlement, all configured through a single API without teams managing chain-specific integration logic themselves.

Supported Assets and Chains

HIFI is chain-agnostic by design. Its network coverage spans Ethereum, Polygon, Base, and all other EVM-compatible chains, alongside Canton, Tron, Stellar, Ripple, and Solana. USDC is the primary stablecoin, with bridging and conversion functionality allowing teams to transfer USDC between chains — for example, from Ethereum to Solana — without managing intermediate custody steps.

The platform also connects to fiat rails in USD and EUR via SEPA, with emerging Africa Rail coverage. Virtual accounts — dedicated bank accounts that automatically convert incoming deposits to stablecoins — serve as on-ramps for teams receiving fiat from counterparties who cannot send crypto directly.

Solana Integration

Solana is one of HIFI's supported settlement networks for both wallet custody and cross-chain USDC transfers. Teams building on Solana can use HIFI's bridging functionality to receive stablecoin liquidity from Ethereum or other networks, or to route outbound payments onto Solana from fiat sources. This makes HIFI relevant to Solana-native fintechs and payment applications that need to interoperate with the broader stablecoin ecosystem without maintaining their own multi-chain infrastructure.

Tokenization and RWA Products

One emerging product is the Credit Card Receivables Vault, which converts card program receivables into verified digital assets at origination and allows investor capital to be drawn against them automatically. Card program operators typically must pre-fund payment networks 30 to 45 days before recovering spend — a cash flow drag that grows with every new cardholder. By tokenizing receivables as digital assets, HIFI enables programmable financing tied directly to actual spending activity, closing the float gap that constrains card program growth.

Compliance and Security

HIFI holds registration as a Money Services Business (MSB) and is SOC 2 Type II certified — the compliance baseline required for enterprise and institutional clients. The platform includes built-in KYC, KYB, and sanctions screening. Banking services run through Cross River Bank, an FDIC member. This compliance layer is a key differentiator for clients that cannot use unregulated bridging solutions.

Team and History

Zach Walsh (CEO) and Mohamed Afifi (COO) founded the company in 2022 in New York City. Walsh previously held payment-focused roles at Sony, Uber, and Quadpay. The company joined the Antler accelerator in Spring 2023, receiving initial institutional backing from Antler partner Jeff Becker.

HIFI raised a $4 million seed round in January 2022, followed by an $8 million round, bringing total known funding to approximately $12 million. The team has grown to 25 people and relocated from a WeWork desk to a 6,000-square-foot office near Madison Square Park in Manhattan. Transaction volume has reached into the billions of dollars.

The company draws an explicit parallel to Bridge — a competing stablecoin payments infrastructure startup that Stripe acquired in late 2024 for roughly $1.1 billion, the largest acquisition in crypto history at the time. Walsh has noted that HIFI and Bridge were among the only companies building this thesis for two years before the Stripe deal opened broader market and investor attention to the space.

Market Positioning

HIFI targets two primary customer segments: financial institutions adding stablecoin settlement to existing payment products, and large corporations with cross-border payment complexity. Its developer API approach means it competes on reliability, chain coverage, compliance posture, and programmability rather than end-user experience.

The stablecoin payments infrastructure sector has grown significantly since 2023, driven by falling on-chain fees, maturing USDC and USDT liquidity across chains, and rising enterprise demand for correspondent banking alternatives. HIFI positions itself as the composable layer above individual chains and rails — including Solana — that product teams can integrate without rebuilding plumbing for each network they need to support.