The PayFi Ecosystem Map is a powerful visualization of the financial architecture driving the future of global payment financing. Designed to provide clarity in a complex landscape, this map highlights the key players, technologies, and layers forming the foundation of PayFi, supported by Huma's PayFi Stack — an open, modular framework designed to standardize blockchain-based payment financing.
What is PayFi?
PayFi, short for Payment Financing, tackles the current problems in traditional financing through an interconnected framework of technologies, protocols, and applications that unlock instant liquidity, reduce costs, and minimize reliance on intermediaries. It also opens the door to new payment use cases that were once impossible to achieve. By bringing key financial services—such as credit, trade finance, and remittances—on-chain, PayFi leverages blockchain and stablecoins to make payment financing more accessible and efficient for businesses and individuals globally.
Unlike trading-focused DeFi projects, PayFi embraces cryptocurrency's original vision of peer-to-peer electronic cash, leveraging blockchain to maximize the time value of money (TVM) by unlocking the greater earning potential of money available today.
What is the PayFi Ecosystem Map?
This PayFi Ecosystem Map is designed to provide an overview of the rapidly growing PayFi ecosystem. It spotlights the companies and innovations transforming payment financing and building the foundations for a more accessible and efficient financial system.
This first version of the map showcases the interconnected layers and contributors that make up the PayFi Stack. It brings to life a modular, open framework that can power PayFi, enabling applications ranging from trade finance and cross-border payments to decentralized physical infrastructure networks (DePIN) and tokenized credit.
Highlights of the PayFi Ecosystem Map:
As PayFi expands its reach, this map will evolve to reflect the growing network of projects and protocols shaping the new financial landscape.
By breaking down the ecosystem into digestible layers, we have designed this map to be a resource that empowers businesses, developers, and institutions to understand and participate in the fast-growing PayFi ecosystem.
The transaction layer provides the backbone of the PayFi ecosystem, where high-performance blockchains like Solana and Stellar enable fast and low-cost transaction processing.
Solana's recent advances include implementing priority fees, which allow users to expedite their transactions by paying a small additional fee. Further, Solana has been actively developing network upgrades like QUIC for better transaction ingestion and stake-weighted Quality of Service (QoS) to manage network traffic more effectively.
Stellar’s focus on equitable cross-border payments, provides a platform where transactions are not only fast but also incredibly accessible. Its consensus protocol, the Stellar Consensus Protocol (SCP), offers a high degree of decentralization while maintaining speed and reliability.
These platforms ensure that payment applications can smoothly process everything from micropayments to large-scale remittances.
At the currency layer, stablecoins bring stability and interoperability to the ecosystem. Fully backed by reserves such as U.S. dollars and Treasury bonds, these stablecoins address the volatility issues often associated with cryptocurrencies.
Circle's USDC, a leading USD denominated stable coin backed by a combination of cash and short-term U.S. Treasuries, continues to build trust and utility ensuring broad acceptance and liquidity.
PYUSD, issued by PayPal, has expanded its reach, integrating with platforms like Solana to facilitate faster, cost-effective transactions, thereby enhancing the usability of stablecoins in everyday commerce.
Agora, another contender, offers a stablecoin with a governance model that aims to align with regulatory expectations across different jurisdictions.
Tether remains a dominant force due to its widespread adoption, and it continues to innovate, particularly with its venture into tokenized gold (XAUT) and other asset-backed stablecoins. Meanwhile, Mountain is carving a niche by focusing on creating stablecoins that are specifically tailored for microtransactions and IoT payments, emphasizing speed and minimal transaction costs.
The infrastructure supporting these stablecoins is equally critical, acting as the backbone by ensuring secure issuance and management of these assets. Stablecoin infrastructure providers also amplify the reliability and scalability of these stablecoins.
Bridge, for instance, specializes in secure and efficient token transfers across blockchains, enabling stablecoins to operate seamlessly in a multi-chain environment. Paxos contributes with a focus on compliance and transparency, offering tokenized dollar solutions fully regulated by financial authorities.
Similarly, Portal empowers businesses by creating programmable stablecoin infrastructures for global payroll, remittances, and trade finance. Perena integrates advanced algorithms for dynamic collateral management, ensuring the underlying stability of stablecoins even in volatile conditions.
The currency layer ensures that businesses and individuals can transact with confidence, leveraging blockchain-based assets to bridge traditional and decentralized financial systems.
The custody layer safeguards digital assets, making them accessible and secure.
Institutional-grade platforms like Fireblocks and Ledger provide secure custody solutions for businesses, ensuring compliance with the highest security standards. These platforms offer robust security measures, such as multi-party computation (MPC) and cold storage, to protect digital assets from theft or loss.
Meanwhile, non-custodial wallets like Phantom and Squads offer user-friendly tools for individuals and businesses to manage their funds independently.
Companies like Cobo also play a vital role in the custody layer by providing a range of custody solutions tailored to different needs. Cobo offers both custodial and non-custodial services, catering to a wide range of users, from individuals to institutional investors.
Together, these solutions enable a trusted environment for storing and transferring digital assets, ensuring that participants in the PayFi ecosystem can operate with confidence.
Regulatory compliance is essential to building trust and ensuring the scalability of blockchain-based finance. The compliance layer’s key role is to ensure that the PayFi ecosystem can work with governments and major banks and grow while adhering to global standards.
Chainalysis provides investigative tools to identify and track illicit activities on the blockchain, helping to prevent money laundering and other financial crimes. It offers a comprehensive risk management platform that helps businesses assess and mitigate risks associated with cryptocurrency transactions.
TRM Labs focuses on detection and prevention of crypto-related financial crimes through their platform, which integrates transaction monitoring, wallet screening, and compliance training. TRM's Behavioral Intelligence introduces a new paradigm in blockchain investigations by analyzing on-chain behaviors, providing a nuanced understanding of transactions beyond simple address attribution.
Polyflow, while newer to the scene, has carved out a niche by integrating compliance into the on-chain custody solutions. Their approach involves creating tools that secure assets and ensure that these assets are managed in compliance with regulatory requirements.
By embedding compliance directly into the infrastructure, this layer creates a secure and transparent PayFi ecosystem for all participants.
The financing layer within the PayFi ecosystem is where the potential for transformative financial solutions is most evident, allowing businesses to leverage blockchain for real-time liquidity based on tokenized future income streams.
At the heart of this innovation is Huma Finance, a pioneer in payment financing through its PayFi network. Huma gives companies the ability to access credit against future receivables. The integration with networks like Solana and Stellar for rapid transaction processing, combined with the recent merger with Arf, enhances Huma’s capacity to offer instant liquidity solutions globally.
Credora introduces another dimension by focusing on credit scoring and risk assessment, bringing institutional-grade credit analysis to the blockchain. Their platform allows for the verification and scoring of creditworthiness in a decentralized manner, which is essential for lenders within the PayFi ecosystem to make informed decisions.
Pyth Network, a leading oracle solution, bridges the gap between off-chain financial data and on-chain applications. By providing accurate, real-time pricing for assets such as equities, forex, and commodities, Pyth enhances the efficiency of DeFi credit markets within PayFi.
Chainlink brings secure and reliable oracle technology to the financing layer. Chainlink’s Proof of Reserve feature is especially valuable for verifying asset collateralization, strengthening trust in tokenized financing processes.
S&P Global, with its established reputation in financial analysis and risk assessment, provides traditional credit ratings and has expanded into providing analysis and ratings for stablecoins and other real-world assets, which can inform the tokenization process within PayFi.
The application layer is where the transformative potential of the PayFi ecosystem becomes tangible, bringing blockchain-based financial tools to life through a range of use cases. By integrating diverse solutions, like crypto payment cards, DePIN, trade finance, payment infrastructure, staking, FX, cross-border payment facilitation, and OTC services, this layer makes PayFi accessible and impactful for businesses and individuals globally.
Payment cards like those offered by Rain, Kulipa, ReDotPay, Visa, Reap, and DCS bridge crypto and fiat, enabling seamless everyday spending and specialized corporate solutions.
DePIN pioneers decentralized infrastructure with companies like Arkreen, DePHY, DeCharge, and Roam, transforming industries such as energy, IoT, EV, and telecommunications by rewarding users for contributing infrastructure.
Trade finance innovations from BSOS, GeoSwift, Jia, Trad.Fi, Zoth, Isle Finance, and On.Fund digitize trade processes, enhance transparency, and provide tokenized financing, reducing reliance on traditional banks.
Payment infrastructure providers such as Request Network, Sphere, Coinflow Labs, Stripe, Easy Labs, Helio, Sanctum, Pye and Mansa power seamless transactions by blending fiat and crypto, while fintechs like Onafriq increasingly leverage innovative technology to address unique regional challenges.
FX solutions by SureFX and Shifts Forex Markets utilize blockchain innovation to transform currency conversion and support global trade.
Arf, Felix, MuralPay, Xoom, Bitso, Opera Mini, and Interlace, which cut settlement delays and remittance costs, are disrupting cross-border payments and expanding accessibility.
OTC services from Yellow Card, Banxa, HashKey, Coins.ph, RD Technologies, fonbnk, and others expand liquidity by providing seamless on- and off-ramp solutions for businesses and individuals, especially in underserved markets.
Together, these solutions transform the PayFi application layer into a robust ecosystem driving efficiency, inclusion, and innovation in global finance.
The PayFi Ecosystem Map provides a clear view of the companies, technologies, and layers driving the transformation of global payment financing.
As the ecosystem grows, so will the opportunities to innovate, collaborate, and build a financial future that works for everyone. This map is just the beginning of understanding how these layers and contributors interact to create a more efficient and accessible global economy.
This initial ecosystem map is not exhaustive! It is a snapshot of the current PayFi Ecosystem, and we’ll be updating and republishing the map regularly as the landscape evolves. For any company we may have missed, or if your company is driving innovation in PayFi and you'd like to be included, we’d love to hear from you.
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Join Us at the PayFi Summit at Consensus Hong Kong 2025
Stay tuned! We’re hosting the first PayFi Summit of the year during Consensus Hong Kong 2025. You’ll get a unique opportunity to connect with the innovators, builders, and companies shaping the next era of global payments and financing. Give us a follow, we will share more details on X soon : https://x.com/humafinance
🚀 Register for the next PayFi Summit happening in Hong Kong on Feb 17, 2025 here: https://lu.ma/10xsqb5z