Why Has PayFi Become the New Hot Trend in Web3? This Funding Data Explains Everything

While the entire Web3 investment market is cooling down, there’s one sector that’s heating up like crazy—Web3 Payments (PayFi).

In the past two months alone, this sector has completed 15 funding rounds, totaling over $200 million. Of these, 11 rounds raised over $30 million each, accounting for almost 40% of all large financings in the past two months. What’s more, the money is coming from all directions: traditional financial giants like Visa, Tether, JPMorgan, and top VCs like Sequoia and Temasek have all jumped in.

Stablecoin Payments Have Become a True Productivity Tool

The data speaks for itself: in 2023, stablecoin transaction volume exceeded $10.8 trillion, with actual settlement volume at $2.3 trillion. This already surpasses many traditional payment systems.

A look at the fundraising leaderboard says it all:

• Bridge just raised $58 million to provide cross-border stablecoin payment solutions for enterprises—SpaceX and Coinbase are using it.
• WSPN (World Stablecoin Payment Network) raised a $30 million seed round; its own stablecoin WUSD is pegged 1:1 to the US dollar.
• Sling raised $15 million in Series A, specializing in low-cost remittances, covering over 50 countries.
• Other projects like IDA, Kredete, and PEX have also secured funding in the millions to tens of millions range.

The AI Era Has Arrived—AI Agents Need to Pay, Too

This is the most intriguing part. The Coinbase CEO recently announced the launch of AI-to-AI crypto payments on Base—AI Agents can use USDC to make instant, fee-free global transfers. Leading institutions back AI payment startups like Skyfire and Payman.

It sounds futuristic, but this is exactly the endgame for PayFi: upgrading from P2P transfers to a programmable financial ecosystem.

Three Real-World PayFi Applications

Solana Foundation chair Lily Liu laid out the core logic—monetizing the time value of money:

Buy Now Pay Never — Not traditional installment shopping, but depositing funds into DeFi to earn yield and using the interest to pay bills. Make your money work for you.

Creator Monetization — Creators can sell future income at a discount to get immediate cash flow, addressing funding gaps during the creative process.

Receivables Financing — Enterprises settle on-chain to speed up financing and lower barriers. What used to take months in traditional finance might take just days on-chain.

Where the Real Risks Lie

But this track does face three key hurdles:

1. Tech and User Habits — Most projects have KYC requirements and geographical restrictions, so the user base is still small.
2. Regulatory Uncertainty — Cross-border payments and capital flows are involved, and changes in national policies directly impact survival.
3. Market Awareness — It’s still in the early exploratory stage; mainstream acceptance is far from sufficient.

Why Now Is the Window of Opportunity

At its core, PayFi meets three needs:

• Global payments demand faster, cheaper solutions
• DeFi needs to find real-world use cases (speculation alone isn’t enough anymore)
• Enterprise clients require programmable, transparent, and instant-settlement payment infrastructure

Traditional payment systems have been running for decades, leaving huge room for reform. PayFi is the key.

Projects like Huma, Credix, and NX Finance are still in early stages, but already handle substantial real transaction volumes (Huma has processed nearly $890 million in payment financing). This shows real market demand—it’s not just hype.

At a relatively quiet time for Web3, the activity and funding frenzy in the PayFi sector is sending a clear message: big money has already placed its bets here.