Alpaca, a BNP-backed brokerage infrastructure provider, has raised $135 million to expand into tokenized markets and AI-native financial services. The funding round signals growing investor appetite for platforms that bridge traditional brokerage services with blockchain-based asset tokenization.
The company plans to use the capital to build what it describes as agent-first infrastructure, designed to support autonomous AI agents that can execute financial transactions on behalf of users. This aligns with a broader industry trend toward integrating artificial intelligence with decentralized finance and tokenized asset markets.
Alpaca already provides brokerage-as-a-service to hundreds of fintech companies, offering APIs that allow third-party platforms to offer stock trading without building their own brokerage infrastructure. The new funding will extend this model to cover tokenized assets, allowing clients to offer both traditional securities and digital assets through a single integration.
The raise comes as both DeFi and traditional finance companies accelerate their pursuit of on-chain business models. Tokenized stocks recently reached a record market capitalization of $2.3 billion, and the broader real-world asset tokenization market continues to expand rapidly. Major financial institutions are increasingly viewing blockchain-based asset representation as a way to reduce settlement times and operational costs.
BNP Paribas, which has been an existing backer of Alpaca, participated in the latest round alongside other institutional investors. The French bank has been increasing its exposure to digital asset infrastructure, reflecting a broader shift among European financial institutions toward embracing blockchain technology.
This article was adapted from Cointelegraph. Read the original here.
