VelaFi: Powering compliant USD settlement across Latin America

For a growing number of businesses across Latin America, dollar access is key to unlocking growth. Importers pay overseas suppliers in dollars, and exporters receive revenue in dollars. Fintechs and payroll platforms move funds across borders daily, and their clients expect it to be fast, predictable, and compliant.

But in practice, reliable access to USD rails in the region remains fragmented and expensive. Traditional banking relationships offer regulatory clarity but lack the speed and programmability that modern treasury operations demand. And while onchain solutions move fast at the settlement layer, they've historically operated outside the regulated financial system, without the compliance frameworks or fiat connectivity needed to bridge back into the necessary banking infrastructure.

As a result, businesses cobble together multiple providers, reconcile across disconnected systems, and absorb the operational overhead of infrastructure that wasn't designed to work together.

VelaFi was built to solve that problem. A stablecoin-powered payments infrastructure platform, VelaFi operates through regulated entities across Latin America, the U.S., and Asia. Through a single API, VelaFi gives fintechs, exporters, payroll providers, and global platforms the ability to send, receive, convert, and settle funds. The team is 60 people and growing, with operations spanning México, Colombia, Argentina, Brasil, Peru, and beyond.

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The cost of fragmented infrastructure

VelaFi had built a production-grade settlement stack across multiple corridors, but the available infrastructure for U.S.-linked flows couldn’t keep pace with demand. Stablecoin-to-USD conversion and delivery into regulated U.S. rails required coordinating across multiple banking relationships, liquidity providers, and regional partners, each with its own timelines, compliance frameworks, and reconciliation workflows.

This fragmentation reflected the reality of the market. Regulated USD connectivity that also supports stablecoin-native settlement simply didn't exist as a single, developer-ready integration. The result was operational complexity that consumed time and resources VelaFi could have been directing toward the customer experience.

As VelaFi's volume grew and enterprise clients raised the bar on settlement speed and reliability, the team recognized the need for compliant and seamless infrastructure.

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Compliance and speed in one integration

VelaFi evaluated a range of traditional banking partners, regional processors, and crypto-native liquidity providers, but none offered the full picture. Banks brought regulatory clarity without the speed or programmability VelaFi's stack demanded. Crypto-native providers moved fast at the blockchain layer but couldn't always deliver the regulated USD connectivity or institutional reliability that enterprise clients expect. And layering multiple providers together just recreated the fragmentation VelaFi was trying to move past.

HIFI stood out because it combined regulated USD rail access with stablecoin-native settlement in a single integration: production-ready, API-first, and built for the kind of developer team VelaFi already had in place. Rather than bolting on another counterparty, VelaFi could plug HIFI directly into its orchestration layer and immediately strengthen its USD flows without adding operational overhead.

"For our use case — bridging stablecoin activity with compliant U.S. banking infrastructure — HIFI provided the right balance between regulatory alignment, reliability, and technical integration readiness." — Hongyi Tang, CRO, VelaFi

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HIFI inside VelaFi's settlement stack

VelaFi gives its clients a seamless path from USD to stablecoins, powered end to end by HIFI's infrastructure under the hood.

When a client signs up through VelaFi's dashboard or API, they complete KYC/KYB directly within the VelaFi experience. Behind the scenes, HIFI powers the compliance workflow and provisions a dedicated virtual deposit account for the client. From there, the client deposits USD from their bank account into the platform, and HIFI converts and routes the funds, delivering stablecoins to the client's wallet in real time.

VelaFi owns the full client relationship, while HIFI operates the regulated infrastructure underneath: compliance, banking connectivity, conversion, and delivery. The result is a production-grade onramp that VelaFi can offer without building or maintaining banking relationships, virtual account infrastructure, or conversion logic on its own.

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From ~1 business day to minutes

Since going live with HIFI, VelaFi has seen measurable improvements across its U.S.-linked corridors.

• Settlement time dropped from ~1 business day to minutes
• Delayed settlements fell by approximately 60%
• VelaFi consolidated the number of counterparties involved in USD flows, reducing operational complexity while maintaining routing flexibility for clients.

VelaFi projects $20M of monthly volume flowing through HIFI by year-end.

"HIFI has added meaningful value specifically in the U.S. market by reinforcing that layer of our architecture and supporting our ability to operate with institutional expectations around compliance and reliability." — Hongyi Tang, CRO, VelaFi

Beyond the numbers, the integration has changed what VelaFi can offer its own clients: faster and more reliable settlement in corridors where USD access and settlement reliability matter most.

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Scaling across Asia, LATAM, and the US

Over the next 12-24 months, VelaFi plans to continue strengthening corridors connecting Asia, LATAM, and the U.S. As stablecoins become more deeply embedded in global settlement infrastructure, the team anticipates further optimizing USD flows and expanding programmable treasury capabilities.

"We see HIFI as a strategic partner within our broader infrastructure network as we continue scaling globally." — Hongyi Tang, CRO, VelaFi

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