Zerohash Expands Amsterdam HQ To Accelerate Regulated Crypto In Europe

Hey Payments Fanatic!

Amsterdam 🇳🇱, my first home, continues to show up at the intersection of financial infrastructure and regulation...

The city continues to position itself as a key gateway for financial infrastructure scaling across Europe, especially as regulation brings more clarity to digital assets.

The news? zerohash has announced the expansion of its European headquarters in Amsterdam, following its MiCAR authorization and growing institutional demand across the EU and EEA.

From this hub, the company will support banks, fintechs, and payments players looking to launch compliant crypto trading, stablecoin Payments, and tokenized asset solutions under a unified regulatory framework.

For the Payments ecosystem, this signals a shift from experimentation to production, as regulated infrastructure makes it easier to integrate digital assets into existing financial flows.

As zerohash CEO Edward Woodford puts it: “Europe is entering a new phase of adoption for digital assets.”

Keep scrolling 👇 There’s more movement across the Payments landscape below. I will be back tomorrow in your inbox.

Cheers,

Marcel

INSIGHTS

The 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗽𝗲 𝗠𝗮𝗳𝗶𝗮 has raised more than $110 Billion in total funding 🤯

And the alumni list behind that number is even crazier:

NEWS

🇬🇧 Ecommpay takes home two wins at the FStech Awards 2026. Ecommpay won Anti-fraud Solution of the Year and Financial Inclusion Award at the FStech Awards 2026, recognizing its innovation in secure and accessible e-commerce payments. The awards highlight the company’s commitment to improving payment security and expanding inclusive financial solutions for merchants.

🇬🇧 Cortena integrates Yapily to automate reconciliation and cash visibility with AI and open banking. By combining Cortena’s workflow automation with Yapily’s reliable bank connectivity, finance teams can move beyond fragmented tools and manual reconciliation towards more continuous and connected finance processes.

🌍 Mastercard launches the third edition of "Mastercard For Fintechs", reinforcing its commitment to Europe’s fintech ecosystem. The initiative aims to guide high‑potential fintechs along a structured growth path, providing access to Mastercard’s expertise, strategic connections, and operational resources to strengthen their market positioning and scalability.

🌍 J.P. Morgan Payments rolls out virtual B2B card in Europe in collaboration with Mastercard. European corporates can now access J.P. Morgan Payments’ expertise through its virtual card offerings to optimize their working capital by automating payment creation and reconciliation.

🇳🇱 zerohash expands European headquarters in Amsterdam to support EU growth. The Amsterdam office now serves as zerohash’s central base for European operations following the company’s licensing under the EU’s Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCAR), which enables passporting across EU and EEA markets.

🇫🇷 Klarna reaches 7 million consumers in France, now used by 1 in 7 adults. The growth is driven by strong adoption of its app, flexible payments, and broader financial features, alongside partnerships with over 48,000 merchants. Read more

🇺🇸 Stripe-backed crypto startup Tempo releases AI payments protocol, launches blockchain. Dubbed the “Machine Payments Protocol,” the open-source network supports payments in both fiat and cryptocurrency. The protocol is also compatible with Stripe’s existing AI payments infrastructure.

🇫🇷 Ingenico and Visa collaborate to accelerate unified commerce solutions across industries. By using Visa's extensive experience in e-commerce, this collaboration can grow Ingenico's innovative payment options, seamless online transactions, and ability to deliver scalable omnichannel solutions designed to meet clients' diverse needs.

🇨🇳 Neema unlocks direct payment route to 1 billion Alipay wallets. Neema said the partnership allows its clients to route cross-border payments directly to Alipay wallet accounts, expanding payment reach in China for banks and financial service providers using its platform.

🇺🇸 Coinbase dives into AI agent payments by developing infrastructure that enables AI agents to make autonomous payments, positioning itself for the emerging “agentic commerce” market. The initiative aims to allow AI systems to pay for services like compute, data, and APIs without human intervention.

🇮🇩 Indonesia enables QR code payments for Japanese tourists. Bank Indonesia said the QR cross-border link with Japan began implementation in August 2025, allowing shoppers in both countries to pay by scanning retail QR codes instead of using cash.

🇺🇸 Hong Kong Crypto Unicorn RedotPay churns executives in IPO drive. RedotPay is seeking to raise up to $150 million in new funding, just months after its last funding round, as it targets a valuation of more than $4 billion through a public listing in the US.

🇺🇸 Circle appoints Kirk Koenigsbauer to the Board of Directors. Mr. Koenigsbauer brings more than 30 years of experience building and scaling global enterprise software and commercial cloud software services. Read more

🇬🇧 Monika Liikamaa steps down as co-CEO of Enfuce. The company has announced that Denise Johansson has taken the reins as sole CEO. Liikamaa will transition out of her role as co-CEO, although she’ll remain closely connected to Enfuce as a founder and shareholder.

🇺🇸 Tokenization platform Theo has launched thUSD and raised $100 m on a gold-backed yield strategy. The capital in the facility goes toward buying tokenized gold. At the same time, Theo shorts gold futures on the CME to hedge against price swings. That combination captures the spread between spot and futures prices without carrying full exposure to gold's market value.

🇺🇸 Elliptic integrates with Tempo. Through this integration, Elliptic’s customers gain the same comprehensive monitoring and investigation capabilities on Tempo as on other blockchains. Continue reading

🇺🇸 PPRO adds Cash App Pay to the US platform. The solution targets digitally native consumers, particularly Gen Z and Millennials, helping businesses reach Cash App’s 58 million active users and tap into growing demand for flexible, app-based payments in the U.S.

GOLDEN NUGGET

𝐆𝐥𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐈𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐢𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐋𝐚𝐭𝐀𝐦 𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭 𝐧𝐨𝐰 👇Created by Arthur Bedel 💳 ♻️

Expanding a card program into a new country sounds simple.

Until you actually do it. Because “launching locally” usually means:

↳ New entity

↳ New licensing

↳ New BIN sponsorship

↳ New compliance setup

↳ New processors + partners

↳ 6–18 months of execution

So the smartest teams are doing something different:

𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲’𝐫𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐠𝐥𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐥-𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭.

Issue from one base country, then distribute across multiple markets:

𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐚𝐬𝐞 → 𝐦𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐢-𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐲 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐛𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧

The UX feels local.

The infrastructure stays centralized.

And the real advantage isn’t just speed — it’s leverage.

Instead of spending 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝟔–𝟏𝟖 𝐦𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐬 rebuilding the stack market by market, you keep 𝟏 𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐦𝐨𝐝𝐞𝐥, 𝟏 𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬, and 𝟏 𝐫𝐞𝐩𝐨𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐥𝐚𝐲𝐞𝐫… while expanding country by country.

A strong signal this model is gaining traction: Pomelo just raised a 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐡 $𝟓𝟓𝐌 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 𝐂 co-led by KASZEK and Insight Partners. Since 2021, Pomelo has raised 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 $𝟏𝟔𝟎𝐌, doubling down on modern issuing + processing infrastructure — including global cards and new payment rails.

If you were launching in LatAm tomorrow… would you go 𝐠𝐥𝐨𝐛𝐚𝐥-𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 or 𝐥𝐨𝐜𝐚𝐥-𝐟𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭?

Source: Pomelo

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