Agora is building the infrastructure layer for stablecoins, positioning itself as a full-stack, institutional-grade alternative to issuing or integrating digital dollars in-house. At the center of its offering is AUSD, a stablecoin pegged 1:1 to the US dollar and backed by reserves managed by asset manager VanEck and custodied by State Street, two of the most established names in traditional finance. That structure is the pitch to regulated institutions wary of opaque stablecoin reserves.
Beyond issuing AUSD, Agora provides a white-label platform that lets businesses launch their own branded stablecoins and integrate programmable-dollar functionality into payments, treasury, and settlement products. This 'stablecoin-as-a-service' model means a fintech, exchange, or enterprise can offer stablecoin payments without assembling reserve management, custody, blockchain integrations, and compliance from scratch.
Stablecoins have moved from a crypto-native primitive to a serious payments rail: adjusted transaction volumes reached the trillions in 2025, with a large and growing share tied to real-world B2B payments. Agora is built for that shift, with AUSD deployed across more than a dozen networks including Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon, and reaching tens of thousands of active addresses since its October 2024 launch, with cumulative volume in the tens of billions.
Agora was founded by Nick van Eck (CEO), Drake Evans (CTO), and Joe McGrady (COO). Dragonfly led a $12M seed round in April 2024 to power its market debut. In July 2025, Agora raised a $50M Series A led by Paradigm with participation from Dragonfly, and used the milestone to debut its white-label stablecoin product. The capital funds expansion of its infrastructure, additional chain support, and growth of its institutional distribution.
The company competes in a fast-consolidating stablecoin infrastructure market against incumbents and newer entrants, betting that institutional-grade reserve management plus a developer-friendly, white-label platform will win regulated customers.