Apyx raises $3M at $300M valuation for dividend-backed stablecoin, no VC
What's the deal? ApyxDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has closed a strategic funding round valuing the protocol at $300 million, bringing total capital raised to $3 million. DeFi Development CorpDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → (Nasdaq: DFDV) led as the first institutional backer.
What's the endgame? Apyx launched on Ethereum mainnet in February 2026 as what it calls the first dividend-backed stablecoin. Its yield-bearing apyUSD token delivers 8% APY, backed by preferred equity dividends from publicly traded digital asset treasury companies such as StrategyDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →.
How it works: Apyx runs a two-token model. apxUSD is a non-yield-bearing synthetic dollar for liquidity and DeFi collateral, while apyUSD accrues value from treasury preferred equity dividends, including instruments like Strategy's STRC. As of March 2026, apyUSD delivered a steady 8% APY.
Why now? The stablecoin market reached roughly $310 billion by February 2026, but about 85% of that capital sat idle, generating no yield. That gap is what Apyx targets.
No VC: The company closed a seed round at a $70 million valuation in January 2026, then the strategic round at $300 million a month later. "Every investor was strategic by design," the team wrote, confirming no venture capital firms on the cap table and no plans to raise again before launch.
Who's building it? The founding team draws heavily from KrakenDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →. Joseph Onorati spent eight years there as chief strategy officer; Parker White, now COO and CIO at DeFi Development Corp, spent six years at the exchange; and John Han previously ran strategic finance at Kraken and finance at Binance.
What could go wrong? The dividend-backed model ties returns to whether treasury companies maintain their preferred equity dividends, making performance contingent on corporate treasury health rather than DeFi lending demand. Lead backer DFDV illustrates the volatility: its stock fell from a $53.88 high to near $0.55 by early March 2026.
The signal: Apyx bets that stablecoin holders will chase yield anchored to real corporate dividends rather than token emissions — a structure it says separates it from rivals like Ethena, at 3.5% APY, and Usual, at 4%. Whether that yield holds depends on a corner of the market that has proven anything but stable.
Read more: Gate
