Stablecoin Startup Nodu Targets Banks With Compliant Payments Layer

A London-based stablecoin infrastructure startup is seeking to accelerate how banks and regulated fintechs move money across borders after securing $1.45 million in pre-seed funding, underscoring growing institutional interest in blockchain-based settlement that aligns with European compliance rules. Nodu said the round was led by Digital Space Ventures and will be used to expand operations across Europe, hire engineering and compliance specialists, and deepen partnerships with regulated financial institutions.

Founded in 2025 and headquartered in London with Latvian roots, Nodu was created by Alex Novozhenov, Vladislav Nikolayev and Daria Dubinina, the team behind the fintech platform Crassula. The founders position Nodu as a plug-and-play infrastructure layer that allows institutions to send, receive and hold stablecoins while automating regulatory workflows such as compliance checks, reporting and reconciliation. The proposition is aimed squarely at banks and licensed fintechs that want faster settlement without rebuilding their technology stacks or taking on additional regulatory risk.

At the core of the platform is an integration model that bridges fiat and blockchain rails within a single regulated framework. Rather than treating stablecoins as a parallel system, Nodu embeds them directly into existing payment flows, enabling institutions to toggle between on-chain settlement and traditional rails as required. A stablecoin off-ramp provides near real-time fiat payouts to more than 100 countries, a feature the company says can materially reduce the cost and latency associated with cross-border payments and remittances.

The timing reflects a broader shift in Europe's payments landscape. Stablecoins are moving from experimentation to production use cases as banks test alternatives to correspondent banking for international transfers and treasury operations. Regulatory clarity has improved with the roll-out of the Markets in Crypto-Assets framework, prompting institutions to look for infrastructure that can meet licensing, reporting and safeguarding requirements without slowing transaction speed. Nodu argues that its compliance-first design addresses this gap, offering controls that institutions can configure to local rules while maintaining a single operational layer.

Industry executives note that many banks remain cautious, not because of settlement technology itself but due to integration and oversight challenges. Legacy cores, fragmented compliance tooling and jurisdiction-specific obligations have made it difficult to deploy stablecoin services at scale. Nodu's founders say their experience building regulated fintech products shaped the company's focus on automation and interoperability, with modules that slot into existing systems rather than replacing them.

The pre-seed funding will be channelled into product hardening and regulatory expansion. Nodu plans to grow its engineering team to support additional stablecoin standards and blockchain networks, while expanding compliance capabilities to cover more European jurisdictions. Partnerships with banks and licensed payment firms are expected to anchor early deployments, with pilots designed to demonstrate measurable reductions in settlement times and operational costs.

Competition in the institutional stablecoin stack is intensifying as infrastructure providers, payment networks and large technology firms vie to become the connective tissue between fiat and blockchain. Nodu differentiates itself by targeting mid-tier banks and fintechs that want a turnkey solution, contrasting with providers that require extensive in-house development or operate primarily as crypto-native platforms. Analysts say this segment could see faster adoption as institutions seek incremental improvements rather than wholesale transformation.

Arabian Post – Crypto News Network

Also published on Medium.

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