Zero Hash

What Is Zero Hash?

Zero Hash is a Chicago-based digital asset infrastructure company founded in 2017 by Edward Woodford, who serves as CEO. The company does not operate a consumer-facing exchange or wallet—instead, it functions as the regulated back-end that financial institutions, fintechs, payment processors, and marketplaces plug into when they want to offer their own customers access to crypto trading, stablecoin settlements, global payouts, and tokenized assets. Zero Hash describes itself as "the infrastructure layer institutions trust to integrate digital assets, stablecoins, and tokenization."

The model is deliberately B2B2C: partners integrate Zero Hash's APIs and immediately inherit its regulatory licenses, compliance stack, custodial infrastructure, and liquidity access. Customers including Interactive Brokers, Stripe, Visa, BlackRock, Morgan Stanley/E*Trade, Gusto, Public, and MoneyLion have all chosen this path rather than building or licensing comparable systems themselves.

How It Works

Zero Hash organizes its platform into three core capability pillars plus a suite of supporting services.

Trade covers the components needed to offer crypto investment within an existing application: spot buy/sell execution, qualified custody, staking-as-a-service, and lending products. Partners connect via a single API and can expose any of these features to their end users under their own brand. Revenue for Zero Hash is transaction-based, with a blended take rate averaging roughly 0.15% on settled volume.

Transact handles the money-movement layer: stablecoin payins, global payouts and remittances, on-ramps converting fiat to crypto, and off-ramps converting crypto back to fiat. This pillar targets payroll companies, payment processors, and neobanks that want to move money faster or cheaper by routing settlements over blockchain rails. Gusto's January 2026 launch of stablecoin global payroll payouts routes contractor payments as stablecoins via Zero Hash's infrastructure.

Tokenize provides the rails for creating and managing blockchain-based financial instruments. Zero Hash has partnered with Securitize and supported BlackRock's and Franklin Templeton's tokenized fund programs, offering multi-chain tokenization payment rails and an institutional tokenization engine.

Supporting these pillars are an Agentic Finance Suite designed for AI-driven financial workflows and a developer portal with comprehensive API documentation, code recipes, and an SDK.

Regulatory Coverage

Zero Hash holds extensive regulatory licensing:

• United States: FinCEN-registered MSB; money transmitter licenses across all 51 jurisdictions; New York BitLicense
• Canada: Registered MSB with FINTRAC
• Europe: MiCAR license (December 2025); Electronic Money Institution license from the Dutch Central Bank (May 2026)
• Global: VASP registration in Argentina (May 2025); compliance infrastructure active across 200+ countries

This licensing stack means a fintech launching in the U.S. and expanding to Europe does not need to secure separate approvals country by country.

Scale and Metrics

As of mid-2026, Zero Hash reports:

• $50 billion+ in total transaction value settled
• 8 million end customers served across its partner network
• 200+ jurisdictions supported
• 80+ digital assets available for trading and custody
• 99.99% platform uptime

Funding and Team

Zero Hash has raised $275 million in total funding. A September 2025 Series D-2 of $104 million—led by Interactive Brokers and joined by Morgan Stanley, Apollo-managed funds, and SoFi—pushed the company past a $1 billion valuation. Earlier backers include Bain Capital Ventures and Point72 Ventures.

In late 2025, Mastercard entered acquisition discussions reportedly valuing Zero Hash at up to $2 billion. Zero Hash withdrew from those talks in January 2026 to remain independent.

Solana Ecosystem Fit

Zero Hash's Solana connection enters through two channels. SOL has been supported as a tradeable and custodied digital asset on the platform, giving 8 million end customers exposure to Solana's native token.

Zero Hash also launched Staking-as-a-Service in June 2026, with Solana staking support explicitly planned for Q3 2026. Launch partners included Interactive Brokers, Public, and BitMart. The implementation uses native illiquid staking—staked positions follow the standard network unbonding period rather than liquid staking derivatives.

On the tokenization side, Zero Hash's partnerships with Securitize and Franklin Templeton place it inside the institutional tokenized asset ecosystem. Solana has become a significant settlement layer for tokenized real-world assets, and Zero Hash's multi-chain tokenization rails position it to support Solana-native issuance as that market grows.