Dakota

Dakota is a crypto-integrated business banking and payments company that provides a single regulated API for moving money globally. Its platform unifies fiat payment rails, stablecoins, foreign exchange, wallets, custody and compliance, and is marketed as a "regulated operating system for programmable money." Product modules include payments across multiple rails, programmable wallets, regulated stablecoin issuance backed 1:1 by cash and Treasuries with reserve revenue sharing, real-time FX quotes across 19 currencies, controls for AI agents that move money within human-signed mandates and preset limits, and stablecoin-backed debit card issuance listed as coming soon.

The company originally launched as a business banking platform: customers hold and transfer funds in USD or stablecoins while using familiar rails such as ACH, Fedwire, SWIFT and SEPA, with deposits automatically converted into stablecoins such as USDC that are issued by regulated entities and backed by short-term U.S. Treasuries. Dakota states it is not a bank and does not offer FDIC insurance, and describes a non-custodial model intended to keep customers in control of assets and prevent rehypothecation without consent, with cyber, crime and errors-and-omissions insurance coverage. Company coverage in 2026 describes a shift from operating a neobank to supplying regulated infrastructure that other companies build on.

Compliance is positioned as a core part of the product: Dakota acts as the regulated principal so clients operate under one licensed, audited compliance program rather than stitching together several vendors. Built-in controls cover KYB/CIP business and beneficial-owner verification, AML screening, sanctions and watchlist checks, ongoing transaction monitoring, blockchain analytics for on-chain counterparty risk, and reserve attestations.

Founding story

Dakota was co-founded by CEO Ryan Bozarth and Gabe Grazier G'Sell, with a founding team drawn from Coinbase, Square and Airbnb. Bozarth previously served as CEO of Coinbase Custody, where he oversaw growth past $100M in annual recurring revenue, and held roles as Group Product Manager at Coinbase, Head of Product at Anchorage Digital, Product Manager at Airbnb and General Manager at Square. G'Sell has a software and product background, founded and leads the collaborative songwriting platform Songcraft, worked as a web software consultant to early-stage startups, and was a software engineer at Airbnb following Deco's acquisition. The company was framed as an answer to the banking-access gap exposed by the Silvergate collapse and to the counterparty and liquidity risks highlighted by the Silicon Valley Bank failure.

Business model

Dakota sells access to its regulated money-movement platform via API. Pricing is published as a pay-as-you-go tier at a flat 25 basis points with no minimum and cancellation at any time, alongside a custom-priced enterprise tier under annual contract that adds a dedicated account manager, a private Slack channel, customer import tools and account support. The stablecoin issuance product includes revenue sharing on reserve assets.

Transaction-based fees (25 bps flat on the pay-as-you-go plan), custom enterprise contracts, and shared economics on stablecoin reserves.

Traction

By the July 2025 Series A announcement, Dakota reported more than 500 business customers, from tech startups to international nonprofits, and processing of billions of dollars in annualized transaction volume. The platform supports payouts across 130+ jurisdictions and onboarding across 100+ jurisdictions.

Latest developments

In 2026 Dakota added SWIFT as a third fiat rail alongside wire and ACH for international payments (August 2026), the ability to import and reuse existing KYC verifications from Sumsub or Persona (June 2026), a read-only wallets, policies and signers governance dashboard (May 2026), and automatic selection of the optimal payment network for fiat transactions (April 2026). It launched a business stablecoin infrastructure platform in January 2026, ran an Agentic Build challenge in which a neobank was built in under nine hours, and co-founder Ryan Bozarth was named to the Stablecoins Most Influential 2026 list in July 2026. Stablecoin-backed debit card issuance is announced as coming soon.