Stablecoins are becoming practical infrastructure for accessing global financial markets. Last year, Alpaca introduced stablecoin funding, enabling Alpaca’s Broker API partners and Trading API users to fund Alpaca accounts using supported stablecoins (USDC, USDG, and USDT) to access US-listed securities, options, fixed income products and crypto.
Since launching, we’ve seen adoption of Alpaca accelerate and we believe this growth reflects a broader shift: stablecoins are moving beyond crypto-native use cases and becoming practical funding infrastructure for brokerage accounts, especially for global investors and platforms seeking access to US markets.
Why Stablecoin Funding Matters for Brokerage Accounts
Stablecoins are increasingly being adopted as part of the broader shift toward tokenized and on-chain financial infrastructure. Traditional brokerage funding has historically relied on banking rails like ACH and wire transfers, which can be slow, expensive, and limited by geography. For global investors and crypto-native platforms, this creates friction in accessing US markets and moving capital efficiently.
As tokenization advances and AI agents become increasingly capable of executing financial workflows on behalf of users, stablecoins provide a programmable, internet-native settlement layer that allows capital to move -more quickly, globally, and around the clock. This makes them well suited not only for human users but also for automated financial systems and agents that need to fund accounts, allocate capital, settle transactions, and interact with financial services without the constraints of traditional banking infrastructure.
Alpaca’s stablecoin infrastructure enables users to use supported stablecoins to access securities trading, while also supporting crypto workflows within the same system. For example, investors can fund an account using supported stablecoins and use those funds to trade US-listed securities such as NVIDIA, options, fixed income products, or crypto through Alpaca. This can help improve funding efficiency across markets.
This model is already being used by partners and users to support real-world brokerage and trading workflows. In the last 12 months, we’ve seen adoption of stablecoin funding increase across both Broker API partners and Trading API users, resulting in 10x increase in deposit volume from March 2025 to March 2026. We’ve seen the number of partners using stablecoin funding increase 6x with the total percentage of external deposits being stablecoin increasing 4x in the same timeframe.
Several partners, including Backed Finance and Anchored Finance, are already using stablecoin funding to connect traditional brokerage infrastructure with on-chain financial use cases like tokenized US stocks, demonstrating how stablecoins can support practical securities and trading use cases for crypto-native platforms.
How Stablecoin Funding Works with Alpaca
Stablecoin funds are transferred on-chain, can be converted into USD, and made available for securities and crypto trading.This allows stablecoins to be used within traditional brokerage workflows across securities and, where enabled, crypto trading.
Alpaca currently supports the following stablecoin funding workflows:
- Stablecoin deposits and withdrawals across supported assets
- Use stablecoin funding for securities and crypto trading
- Pre-funding and post-trade settlement workflows
- Transaction monitoring, secure transfer verification, and travel rule compliance (TRC)
Stablecoins Currently Supported by Alpaca
Alpaca supports major USD stablecoins including USDC, and USDG planned in the upcoming months.
USDC serves as the primary stablecoin, with additional support for other USD-pegged assets. We continue to expand coverage across stablecoins and blockchains, with additional currencies and stablecoins coming soon.
Why Integrate Stablecoin Funding with Alpaca
With stablecoin funding, Alpaca’s partners and users can now:
Power Securities and Crypto Trading Workflows
Use a single funding flow across both traditional securities and, where enabled, crypto trading.
Offer Cost-Efficient, Scalable Pricing
Reduce funding and withdrawal costs with pricing designed to scale efficiently with volume.
Support Capital Efficiency
Net balances across securities and crypto workflows to support capital efficiency.
Scale Across Account Models
Support users across regions to access US markets through stablecoin funding.
Scale Across Account ModelsSupport users across regions to access US markets through stablecoin funding.
Stablecoin funding reflects Alpaca’s broader vision of connecting traditional financial infrastructure with on-chain capital markets, another step forward in Alpaca’s mission to open financial services to everyone on the planet.
“Alpaca is uniquely positioned to support modern traditional and on-chain solutions, including using stablecoins to access US stocks, options, fixed income products, and crypto through a single infrastructure layer,” said Hitoshi Harada, Co-Founder, CTO, and CPO of Alpaca. “As financial infrastructure evolves around how capital moves across markets and borders, stablecoins are becoming more than just funding rails. Their programmability makes them a natural fit for increasingly automated financial systems, while enabling our partners and users to access a more global, always-on trading experience.”
Get Started
Are you interested in funding your Trading API account with stablecoins? Login to your account and fund through your dashboard.
Interested in learning more about stablecoin infrastructure at Alpaca? For prospective partners, please contact the Alpaca Sales team at [email protected] or complete the form below.
For existing partners, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager or email the Success team at [email protected].
Contact Alpaca
Cryptocurrency services are provided by Alpaca Crypto LLC (“Alpaca Crypto”), a wholly-owned subsidiary of AlpacaDB, Inc or Payward Interactive, Inc. depending on your residence.
This content is for informational purposes only, is believed to be accurate as of the publication date, and may change without notice. References to securities, cryptocurrencies, issuers, assets, or companies are provided for illustrative purposes only and do not constitute a recommendation, offer, solicitation, or investment, legal, tax, or accounting advice. Please consult your own professional advisors regarding your circumstances. All investments involve risk, including the possible loss of principal. Past performance does not guarantee future results.
Cryptocurrencies and stablecoins involve unique risks and are not suitable for all investors. Stablecoins may lose value, may not maintain a stable value relative to the U.S. dollar, and are subject to issuer, liquidity, operational, cybersecurity, regulatory, and blockchain network risks. Cryptocurrency and stablecoin services may not be available in all jurisdictions and are subject to applicable laws, regulations, and eligibility requirements.
The testimonials, statements, and opinions presented on the website are applicable to the specific individuals. It is important to note that individual circumstances may vary, and may not be representative of the experience of others. There are no guarantees of future performance or success. The testimonials are voluntarily provided and are not paid, nor were they provided with free products, services or any other benefit in exchange for said statements.
This is not an offer, solicitation of an offer, or advice to buy or sell securities or cryptocurrencies or open a brokerage account or cryptocurrency account in any jurisdiction where Alpaca Securities or Alpaca Crypto, respectively, are not registered or licensed, as applicable.
