
Stackup raises $4.2m to streamline ops for crypto firms
Stackup, a digital asset management platform designed to help crypto businesses streamline their operations, has secured $4.2 million in seed funding.
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The round was led by 1kx, with participation from Y Combinator, Goodwater Capital, Soma Capital, Amino Capital, and Digital Currency Group.
Co-founded and led by a former mission manager at SpaceX, John Rising, Stackup helped build wallet infrastructure for major industry players like Coinbase and TrustWallet before pivoting to offer a digital asset management platform directly to businesses.
Coinciding with the influx of new capital, the startup has launched a direct banking integration feature to address the fragmentation between traditional and crypto operations.
Businesses can now connect their bank accounts to their Stackup wallet for seamless, non-custodial ACH transfers between their bank and wallet within their existing payment workflows.
In addition, it has expanded its support blockchains to include Ethereum, Base, Arbitrum, Optimism, Polygon, Avalanche, and BSC.
Says CEO Rising: 'This funding gives us the ability to eliminate operational inefficiencies that have historically hindered the adoption and growth of this industry.
"We're empowering businesses to streamline their financial operations and workflows, allowing them to focus on growth without compromising on security or control of their assets.'
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"We are going to get rid of all of them," he told the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions in May. Illinois Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi said middlemen like Kim bear some responsibility for the flood of vapes, but lays most of the blame with the FDA, which he accuses of sitting idle while illegal vapes flood into the country. "The FDA is a disaster. It's asleep at the switch," he said. "You have illicit vapes all over the place." The Trump Administration's tariffs on China, as well as vape seizures, have already dented supply, Reuters reported this month. Vape shipments recorded by the FDA collapsed in May, with a shortage of popular brand Geek Bar in particular. The FDA has authorized 34 different vape products made by companies like British American Tobacco (BATS.L), opens new tab and Altria (MO.N), opens new tab, but no fruity or sweet flavored vapes that the FDA says could appeal to children. And yet executives at BAT estimate unauthorized devices make up 70% of vape sales in the U.S., valuing their sales at $8.14 billion last year. The supply chain ferrying illegal Chinese-made vapes into the U.S. mostly operates in plain sight. It starts with a network of exporters based in China. After a vape shipment clears customs in the U.S., it is passed along to its U.S. buyer - usually a distributor, which then sells them to smaller wholesalers and retailers nationwide. The FDA collects data on U.S.-based recipients of vape shipments. The largest in 2024 was Reynolds American, the U.S. subsidiary of BAT. But the top ten largest U.S. vape recipients also included six obscure firms, opened in 2023 or 2024 and sometimes operating out of residential homes. The second-largest recipient of vape shipments in 2024 was a Chicago-based company called Somo Trade LLC, established in 2023, Reuters analysis of FDA data and state business filings show. A woman at the business' address, a residential home on Chicago's north side, told a Reuters reporter that the property was not involved in the vape business. Another recipient of vapes, Rongda Trade, is registered to a house on the same street as Somo Trade, opened the same month, and has already been shut down, its filings show. No one answered the door when Reuters visited the address. No one answered at a residential address linked to Lila Trade on Chicago's southwest side, either. The name of the registered agent, Xiaohong Dai, was not among those listed on four mailboxes out front. Reuters could not find websites for any of the firms, and their state business filings did not contain any contact information. Meanwhile, in February, New York Attorney General Letitia James sued 13 different companies which she said were major U.S. vape distributors, accusing them of working closely with Chinese manufacturers to fuel the unauthorized vape industry. "Together, Defendants have established an industry for flavored e-cigarettes, particularly disposable vapes, and staked out their own lucrative shares in the soaring market," the complaint states. "All have engaged in reprehensible, illegal conduct and aim to addict youth to their products." Mitch Zeller, former head of the FDA's Center for Tobacco Products during the Obama, Trump and Biden administrations, placed the blame on U.S.-based distributors, such as those named in James' lawsuit, for feeding demand. "There's only a handful of middlemen, middle companies, that are responsible for taking the illegal, imported stuff being misclassified and mislabeled and getting it into interstate commerce," he said. ($1 = 7.1836 Chinese yuan renminbi) ($1 = 0.7374 pounds)