Venture investors have invested nearly $100 million in stablecoin startups, supporting new infrastructure for programmable money.
M0, a Switzerland-based platform enabling developers to create custom stablecoins, announced a $40 million Series B round on Thursday, 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 apps.
Another stablecoin infrastructure raise came from Rain, a US startup creating tools for banks to issue regulated stablecoins. The company secured $58 million in a Series B funding round led by Sapphire Ventures, with support from Dragonfly, Galaxy Ventures, and Samsung Next, bringing its total funding to $88.5 million.
The announcements followed as the stablecoin market capitalization hit a record $280 billion on Thursday, per data from DefiLlama.
Stablecoin market cap as of Thursday. Source: DefiLlama
Related: Japan wrote the first stablecoin rulebook — so why is the US pulling ahead?
Different paths to programmable money
The funding rounds highlight investors’ renewed interest in “programmable money” (PM), which is a digital currency embedded with rules governing its use. Unlike traditional subsidies or vouchers, these conditions are automatically enforced through blockchains and smart contracts by issuers. A common analogy is food stamps that can only be used for groceries.
While all stablecoins are inherently programmable because they operate on blockchains, most serve as basic payment tokens. What distinguishes M0 and Rain’s services is their built-in programmability.
M0 offers frameworks for creating application-specific stablecoins with integrated rules for liquidity, access, and usage. One client, Playtron, directly incorporated an M0-powered “Game dollar” into its portable gaming system.
Rain emphasizes fund flow, enabling real-time, compliant payrolls across more than 100 jurisdictions through its partnership with Toku. It has also extended its services to Solana, Tron, and Stellar to support programmable cards and spending schemes across various chains.
Related: GENIUS Act yield ban may push trillions into tokenized assets — ex-bank exec
Governments and startups test PM
Programmable money has been developing for a while, and M0 and Rain are among many pursuing this goal.
In July 2024, Kazakhstan launched a pilot program utilizing its digital tenge CBDC to finance a rail link to China. The “marked” or programmable token was configured to disburse payment only upon meeting specific milestones, aimed at enhancing transparency and accountability in state infrastructure projects.
In October 2024, the National Bank of Kazakhstan demonstrated another programmability pilot showing that VAT refunds could be processed much more efficiently—cutting wait times from 70–75 days down to 10–15 days by automating eligibility verifications.
In May, the Monetary Authority of India’s digital rupee pilot broadened to incorporate programmability and offline capabilities, focusing on improving accessibility and customizing payment flows.
This governmental use of programmable money has not escaped criticism. Financial analyst Susie Violet Ward, co-founder and CEO of the think tank Bitcoin Policy UK, warned on Cointelegraph’s Chain Reaction daily X space on Aug. 21 that CBDCs could represent the “weaponization of money in its purest form.”
However, experimentation isn’t confined to governments. Private sector initiatives are also pushing programmability into digital currency for various applications.
In June 2024, Circle launched programmable wallets and gas-station functionality on Solana, allowing USDC-based transactions to autonomously trigger smart contracts or automatically handle transaction fees.
More recently, in July 2025, the blockchain infrastructure startup TradeOS introduced a programmable settlement layer for global trade. The platform links stablecoin payouts to real-world outcomes, verified through cryptographic proofs, facilitating automated and conditional payments in trade scenarios.
Magazine: Programmable money: How crypto tokens could change our entire experience of value transfer
