Abstract
- Former a16z crypto investor Sam Broner has co-founded The Higher Cash Firm, elevating $10M in seed funding to construct a stablecoin clearinghouse.
- The spherical was led by a16z crypto with backing from BoxGroup, Sunflower Capital and angels together with Circle co-founder Sean Neville and ex-Microsoft exec Charlie Songhurst.finance.
- Higher Cash plans to assist GENIUS Act-compliant greenback tokens resembling Paxos and Stripe’s Bridge, whereas excluding USDT however not its U.S. sibling USAT.
Former a16z crypto investor Sam Broner has raised $10 million to launch The Higher Cash Firm, a startup aiming to turn into a clearinghouse for U.S. greenback stablecoins within the wake of America’s new federal GENIUS Act regime. Broner co-founded the corporate in November with faculty buddy Adam Zuckerman, a former Latham & Watkins lawyer who later served as common counsel at Eigen Labs, and advised Fortune that the purpose is to “make stablecoins transfer like cash” by giving establishments a single, low-cost venue to swap between totally different compliant tokens. “Stablecoins aren’t simply the long run, they’re higher cash in the present day,” Broner mentioned beforehand on the Proof of Discuss 2025 convention, arguing that the asset class is already used as working capital and settlement money throughout crypto markets.
The $10 million seed spherical was led by Broner’s former agency a16z crypto, with participation from early-stage traders BoxGroup and Sunflower Capital. Fortune studies that angel backers embrace Circle co-founder Sean Neville and former Microsoft technique chief Charlie Songhurst, signaling that each stablecoin insiders and Web2 veterans see a chance in regulated plumbing somewhat than issuing new tokens. Job listings reviewed by Certainly present Higher Cash hiring engineers in New York at salaries between $175,000 and $225,000, describing the corporate as “constructing a stablecoin clearinghouse to make stablecoins transfer like cash.”
Broner says Higher Cash has already secured commitments from a number of issuers – together with Paxos, Stripe’s Bridge unit and MoonPay – and can initially deal with solely fee tokens that meet the necessities of the Guiding and Establishing Nationwide Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act. Based on regulation agency Morgan Lewis, the GENIUS Act creates a twin licensing regime for fiat-backed stablecoin issuers, forces month-to-month disclosure of reserves and annual audited financials for issuers with greater than $50 billion excellent, and offers the U.S. Treasury energy to declare overseas regimes non‑compliant. Inside that framework, Higher Cash plans to assist all “signed and efficient” GENIUS‑compliant greenback tokens, whereas explicitly excluding Tether’s world USDT product.
Tether has as an alternative launched USAT, a separate dollar-pegged token “tailor-made for the brand new federal tips in America” and issued by a federally chartered financial institution, which the corporate says is engineered to function squarely inside GENIUS Act guidelines. Fortune notes that USAT will probably be supported on Higher Cash, making it a part of the preliminary roster alongside tokens from Paxos and different regulated issuers, whereas USDT stays outdoors the platform “for now.” Broner advised the journal that the clearinghouse will deal with “low-cost, high-throughput swaps” for institutional purchasers, with the product anticipated to go stay “within the coming weeks” as soon as technical integrations and authorized opinions are finalized.
Broner spent greater than two years at a16z crypto specializing in stablecoin and funds investments, together with analysis on how “liquidity, sovereignty and credit score” would flip tokens into on a regular basis cash. Zuckerman, in the meantime, labored on early GENIUS Act analyses at Latham & Watkins earlier than transferring into Eigen Labs, giving Higher Cash a founder group steeped in each coverage and infrastructure.
In a earlier crypto.information story on the GENIUS Act, legal professionals argued that its reserve, audit and licensing necessities had been more likely to push world liquidity towards a narrower set of greenback tokens that may meet financial institution‑type requirements. One other story on how Amazon, Walmart and Ant Group plan to “weaponize stablecoins” highlighted how Massive Tech companies might must route their very own greenback tokens by regulated intermediaries somewhat than challenge them straight, particularly beneath sections that limit non‑monetary public firms from launching fee cash with out unanimous approval from a federal overview panel. A 3rd story on South Korea’s race to challenge financial institution‑backed stablecoins advised that, as jurisdictions converge on related guidelines, impartial clearinghouses like Higher Cash might turn into the popular method for exchanges, fintechs and corporates to maneuver between native and U.S. greenback rails with out touching non‑compliant tokens.
