TradeTech Eye — Capital Markets Technology News

Alpaca Secures $135M to Power Agent-First Brokerage for Tokenized Markets and AI Finance

16 July 2026

Press Release: Alpaca Secures $135M to Power Agent-First Brokerage for Tokenized Markets and AI Finance | Featured Image by FF News

Quick Summary

Alpaca has raised $135 million in new funding to scale its agent-first brokerage infrastructure, targeting the convergence of tokenized assets and AI-native finance. Led by Peak XV, the capital will accelerate regulated API-first solutions that bridge traditional equities with onchain markets for global institutional clients and fintechs.

How Does Alpaca Support Agent-First Brokerage Infrastructure?

Alpaca provides the foundational agent-first brokerage infrastructure required for the next generation of autonomous financial applications. By offering a highly programmable API-first stack, the platform enables AI agents to execute complex trading strategies and manage portfolios across traditional and onchain markets seamlessly. This infrastructure is critical as monthly active users for their API grew nearly 4x in just six months.

  • Scalable API access for algorithmic and agentic trading.
  • Regulated global presence across the US, UK, Europe, and India.
  • Support for 10M+ brokerage accounts globally.

What Role Does Tokenization Play in Alpaca’s Growth?

The shift toward onchain financial assets is a core driver of Alpaca's recent expansion and valuation. The company has already surpassed $1.5 billion in AUC (Assets Under Custody) for stocks backing tokenized equities, proving the massive demand for regulated bridges between legacy finance and blockchain ecosystems. This funding allows Alpaca to further integrate tokenized global markets into its prime brokerage offering.

  • Passporting completed across all 30 EEA countries for broad access.
  • Onboarding major exchanges and tokenization platforms globally.
  • Unified API access for both traditional and digital asset classes.

How is AI Reshaping the Future of Financial Services?

AI is accelerating the creation of AI-native financial services, where market participants are increasingly non-human autonomous agents. Alpaca’s infrastructure is designed to handle this programmable market shift, providing the speed and regulatory compliance necessary for AI-driven wealth management and institutional trading. The company has successfully doubled its revenue year-over-year for three consecutive years by positioning itself at this intersection.

"Alpaca is uniquely positioned to become the default infrastructure layer for tokenized global capital markets and AI-native financial services," said Yoshi Yokokawa, Co-Founder and CEO of Alpaca. "The support from our investors reflects confidence in Alpaca’s execution and the market opportunity ahead. As tokenization reshapes access to global markets and AI accelerates the creation of new financial applications and market participants, demand is growing for regulated infrastructure built for this paradigm shift."

FF NEWS TAKE:

Alpaca is clearly moving the needle by solving the "plumbing" problem for the next decade of finance. While many firms talk about AI and tokenization in isolation, Alpaca is building the agent-first brokerage infrastructure that actually connects them. With $435 million in total financing and a footprint in 40+ countries, they are no longer just a fintech darling but a systemic infrastructure provider for the programmable economy.

Companies in this story: Elefund, Unbound, Peak XV, BMO, Opera Tech Ventures, Payward, Kraken, Alpaca, BNP Paribas Group

People in this story: Aakash Kapoor, Yoshi Yokokawa