Mesh has officially joined the unicorn club after securing $75 million in a Series C round that values the crypto payments network at $1 billion. The round was led by Dragonfly Capital and attracted top crypto and venture investors including Paradigm, Moderne Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, SBI Investment and Liberty City Ventures, Mesh announced Tuesday. Notably, part of the funding was settled in stablecoins — a deliberate proof point that Mesh’s infrastructure is ready for “high-stakes, real-world use,” the company said. The raise and valuation are a vote of confidence in crypto infrastructure even amid a muted spot market. Investors are continuing to back projects aimed at delivering practical payments and settlement solutions that could reshape cross-border and merchant finance. What Mesh builds - Mesh positions itself as an asset-agnostic payments layer that connects wallets, chains and assets. - Consumers can pay with any crypto they hold, while merchants receive instant settlement in their preferred stablecoin. - The approach seeks to eliminate the slow settlement times and high fees typical of traditional finance (TradFi) and to reduce fragmentation across the crypto payments stack. “Fragmentation creates real friction in the customer payment experience,” Mesh co-founder and CEO Bam Azizi said. “We are focused on building the necessary infrastructure now to connect wallets, chains, and assets, allowing them to function as a unified network.” Why it matters Mesh’s model addresses two persistent pain points for crypto payments: liquidity/asset fragmentation and settlement speed. By letting merchants offload settlement risk and receive stablecoin payouts instantly, Mesh could make crypto payments more practical for everyday commerce and cross-border flows — a core use case many proponents say will drive broader adoption. The new capital will likely accelerate product development and network expansion as Mesh attempts to stitch together the fragmented payments landscape and push crypto closer to mainstream financial rails. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news