Premier cryptocurrency venture capital firm Paradigm has made its first investment in Brazil, leading a $13.5 million Series A funding round for stablecoin startup Crown. The investment values Crown at $90 million and marks a significant strategic bet on the digital asset potential of Latin America's largest economy.
Crown is the creator of the BRLV stablecoin, which is pegged 1:1 to the Brazilian real (BRL) and is fully backed by Brazilian government bonds. According to the company, BRLV has become the world's largest emerging market stablecoin, with over R$360 million (approximately $66 million) in subscriptions. The token is currently available exclusively to institutional clients, who gain exposure to Brazil's high interest rates—currently at a base rate of 15%—by holding the stablecoin. Crown earns yield from the government bonds backing BRLV and has built its architecture to pass this yield on, a key differentiator from stablecoins like Tether which offer zero yield.
Paradigm's investment decision was influenced by Crown's leadership team and their experience with fintech and institutional clients, as well as the project's early success in scaling liquidity. "The liquidity network effects that you build when you are the main stablecoin of a currency are extremely strong. That's why Tether and Circle are doing so well," said Ricardo de Arruda, a Brazilian native and investment partner at Paradigm. "That's why we expect Crown to do so well, because Crown is already way far ahead in terms of liquidity than any other of the BRL stablecoins."
Crown was co-founded by John Delaney, a New York lawyer who moved to Brazil 15 years ago, and Vinicius Correa, who has a tech background from working at the successful fintech Nubank. Delaney identified two critical issues for stablecoin success in Brazil: the need to offer yield in a high-interest-rate environment and the requirement for institutional-grade safety and security to attract larger firms. Crown launched its token about a year and a half ago and has focused initially on institutional demand, which it describes as a form of "carry trade" for accessing Brazilian interest rates.
The company has set an ambitious long-term goal: to have one trillion reais worth of BRLV in circulation within ten years, which it projects would represent a high single-digit percentage of the Brazilian money supply. While retail adoption is expected to be a "long tail phenomenon," Crown sees exponential growth potential in Brazil, the world's fifth-largest crypto market where more people have invested in digital assets than in equities.
Earlier this year, Crown announced an $8.1 million seed round led by Framework Ventures, with participation from Valor Capital Group, Coinbase Ventures, Norte Ventures, Paxos, and Nubank co-founder Ed Wible.
