Ground, a startup building an API layer for on-chain yield, emerged from stealth on June 24 with $3.6 million in a pre-seed funding round co-led by Bain Capital Crypto and ParaFi Capital. The round, which began in September 2025 and closed a month later under a SAFE structure with token warrants, also drew participation from Nascent, Robot Ventures, Chapter One, and Consonant Ventures. No board seats or advisor positions were granted to investors.
The San Francisco-based company, founded by Reid Cuming (formerly of tokenization firm Superstate and Compound Treasury) and CTO Sam Yoon, aims to let neobanks, wealth managers, exchanges, and asset managers offer on-chain yield products without building their own blockchain teams. The Ground API routes capital through lending and structured-credit protocols on Ethereum, Solana, and several Layer-2 networks, with initial integrations including Aave, Morpho, Maple, and Kamino. Liquid staking tokens are planned next.
“The global asset management industry oversees more than $147 trillion, and there are trillions of dollars idling in pre-funded accounts, neobanks, and blockchain wallets,” Cuming told The Block. “That is a massive untapped opportunity.” Ground plans to generate revenue via usage-based platform fees, though percentages were not disclosed. Its differentiator is institutional plumbing: compliance tooling, reporting, liquidity management, and configurable risk parameters—features crypto-native yield aggregators often lack.
The fundraising signals continued venture interest in DeFi credit infrastructure. ParaFi raised a $125 million fund in March 2026 targeting stablecoins, tokenization, and institutional on-chain finance, while Bain Capital Crypto has been expanding its digital-asset portfolio. Q1 2026 saw crypto startups attract nearly $5 billion in venture funding, with DeFi credit infrastructure now poised to follow payments and trading infrastructure’s strong pace.
