Venture investors have poured nearly $100 million into Stablecoin startups to support new infrastructure for programmable money.
M0, a Swiss-based platform where developers can issue custom stub coins, announced the $40 million Series B Raise on Thursday, led by PolyChain Capital and Ribbit Capital. Founded in 2023, the company is partnering with projects such as Metamask and Playtron to integrate infrastructure into consumer apps.
Another Stablecoin infrastructure raising comes from Rain, a US startup that develops tools to issue rain-regulated stubcoins. The company won $58 million in a Series B fund led by Sapphire Ventures, next backed by Dragonfly, Galaxy Ventures and Samsung, bringing total funds to $88.5 million.
The announcement was announced as Stablecoin’s market capitalization reached a record $280 billion on Thursday, according to data from Defillama.
Stablecoin market capitalization as of Thursday. sauce: defill
Different paths to programmable money
The funding round highlights investors’ renewed interest in “programmable money” (PM). Unlike traditional grants and vouchers, these terms are automatically implemented through the issuer’s blockchain or smart contract. One common analogy is food stamps that are limited to groceries.
All stubcoins run on the blockchain, so they are technically programmable, but act as the simplest payment token. What sets the services of M0 and Rain stand out is the programmerism built directly into the design.
M0 provides Rails for issuing application-specific steel coins that incorporate rules for liquidity, access and use. One of the clients, Playtron, has integrated the M0-powered “Game Dollar” directly into the handheld gaming system.
Rain focuses on fund flows and through its partnership with Toku, it enables real-time, compliant payroll calculations across more than 100 jurisdictions. It also expands to Solana, Tron and Stellar to support programmable cards and spending programs across multiple chains.
Government and startups test PM
Programmable money has evolved for some time, with M0 and rain not just pursuing.
In July 2024, Kazakhstan launched a pilot program using the digital Tenge CBDC, funding the railway link to China. “Marked” or programmable tokens were programmed to pay only if designated milestones were met, with the aim of ensuring greater transparency and accountability in the provision of state infrastructure.
In October 2024, the National Bank of Kazakhstan implemented another programmatic pilot to demonstrate that VAT refunds can be handled more efficiently.
In May, the Indian Digital Rupee Pilot monetary authority was expanded to include features such as programmatic and offline features aimed at improving accessibility and payment flows for adjustments.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ry9mi57pbjs
This use of programmable money by the government is not made without criticism. Susie Violet Ward, a financial analyst who is co-founder and CEO of think tank Bitcoin Policy UK, warned on August 21st of Cointe Leger’s Chain Reaction Daily X space.
However, the experiments are not limited to the government. Private sector projects are pushing the programmatic nature of various use cases into digital money.
In June 2024, Circle introduced programmable wallet and gas station capabilities in Solana, allowing USDC-based transactions to autonomously trigger smart contracts or automatically manage transaction fees.
Recently, in July 2025, blockchain infrastructure startup Trados debuted a programmable payments tier for global commerce. The platform links Stablecoin payments to actual results, validated with encrypted proofs, allowing automated conditional payments in trade scenarios.
