Venture capitalists invest nearly $100 million in stablecoin startups to support new infrastructure for programmable currency.
The Switzerland-based platform M0 allows developers to issue customized stablecoins, and the company announced on Thursday the completion of a $40 million Series B funding round led by Polychain Capital and Ribbit Capital. Founded in 2023, the company has partnered with projects like MetaMask and Playtron to integrate its infrastructure into consumer-facing applications.
Another round of funding for stablecoin infrastructure comes from Rain, a U.S. startup developing regulated stablecoin issuance tools for banks. The company secured $58 million in Series B funding led by Sapphire Ventures, with participation from Dragonfly, Galaxy Ventures, and Samsung Next, bringing its total funding to $88.5 million.
According to DefiLlama data, at the time of these announcements, the market capitalization of stablecoins reached a record $280 billion on Thursday.
These funding rounds highlight a renewed interest from investors in "programmable money" (PM), a type of digital currency with built-in rules governing its use. Unlike traditional subsidies or vouchers, these conditions are automatically enforced by the issuer through blockchain and smart contracts. A common analogy is food stamps that can only be used for purchasing groceries.
While all stablecoins are technically programmable since they operate on a blockchain, most function merely as simple payment tokens. The difference with M0 and Rain is that programmability is directly embedded in their design.
M0 provides infrastructure for issuing application-specific stablecoins that have liquidity, access, and embedded rules for use. One of its clients, Playtron, has directly integrated M0-powered "Game Dollars" into its handheld gaming system.
Rain focuses on cash flow, achieving real-time, compliant payroll distribution across more than 100 jurisdictions through a partnership with Toku. It has also expanded to Solana, Tron, and Stellar to support programmable cards and spending plans across multiple chains.
Programmable money has been evolving for some time, and M0 and Rain are not alone in this pursuit.
In July 2024, Kazakhstan launched a pilot project using its digital tenge central bank digital currency (CBDC) to fund a railway project to China. This "tokenized" or programmable token is programmed to only pay out upon reaching specified milestones, aimed at ensuring greater transparency and accountability in national infrastructure delivery.
In October 2024, the National Bank of Kazakhstan conducted another programmability pilot, demonstrating that VAT refunds could be processed more efficiently—reducing wait times from 70-75 days to 10-15 days through automated eligibility checks.
In May, the Reserve Bank of India's digital rupee pilot expanded to include features like programmability and offline capabilities, aimed at enhancing accessibility and customizing payment processes.
The use of programmable money by governments is not without criticism. Financial analyst and co-founder and CEO of the think tank Bitcoin Policy UK, Susie Violet Ward, warned on August 21 during Cointelegraph's Chain Reaction daily X space that central bank digital currencies could amount to "the purest form of weaponization of currency."
But experiments are not limited to governments. Private sector projects are also pushing programmability into various use cases for digital currencies.
In June 2024, Circle launched programmable wallet and gas station features on Solana, enabling USDC-based transactions to autonomously trigger smart contracts or automatically manage transaction fees.
Recently, in July 2025, blockchain infrastructure startup TradeOS launched a programmable settlement layer for global commerce. The platform links stablecoin payments to real-world outcomes verified through cryptographic proofs, enabling automation and conditional payments in trade scenarios.
Related: Kanye West's YZY token incident: 51,000 traders lost $74 million, with only 11 profiting a million.
Original article: “Programmable Money Gains Attention, Startups M0 and Rain Raise Nearly $100 Million”
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