Paradigm has led a $9 million Series A financing round in El Dorado, a Latin American cross-border payments application that leverages stablecoins and fiat rails to facilitate faster and cheaper remittances and business payments. The round saw participation from Coinbase Ventures and Verda Ventures, marking a significant step in stablecoin-based payment infrastructure in the region.
El Dorado, founded in 2022 by Latin American immigrants with firsthand experience of payment difficulties, now serves over 100,000 active users and has processed more than 5 million transactions across 12 countries including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, and Ecuador. CEO Guillermo Goncalvez estimated the cross-border payment market in Latin America approaches $1 trillion annually, with a substantial portion being B2B transactions for imports and exports, especially between the U.S. and Latin America.
The company targets underserved corridors that larger fintechs like Nubank and Wise often overlook—routes such as Brazil–Bolivia, as well as markets like Paraguay, Ecuador, and Peru. Goncalvez noted that internal corridors present the biggest underserved opportunity. El Dorado has also launched a business unit combining multi-signature and multi-organization structures with stablecoin and fiat rails into a single application, onboarding over 100 new business clients, with electric vehicle imports from China as a key use case.
The business payments service is built on Tempo, a Layer 1 blockchain incubated by Paradigm and Stripe. This allows companies worldwide to open business accounts with or without a U.S. entity, furthering Paradigm's strategy in stablecoin-based financial rails. The investment underscores the growing recognition of stablecoins for real-world payments and the potential of blockchain infrastructure to modernize cross-border finance.
