OpenPayd wins ‘Best Early-Stage or Future Payments Initiative’ Award for stablecoin infrastructure innovation

London, UK, 16 February 2026 – OpenPayd, a leading provider of financial infrastructure, has won the ‘Best Early-Stage or Future Payments Initiative’ award at the Cards and Payments Awards in recognition of its stablecoin infrastructure, enabling businesses to receive, hold, convert and send stablecoins globally.

OpenPayd was selected from a highly competitive shortlist featuring major global financial and payments players, including NatWest, Visa, Elavon, U.S. Bank, SummaPay, Baanx and CompoSecure.

OpenPayd’s stablecoin infrastructure, which was launched less than 12 months ago, delivers a rails-agnostic solution that enables businesses to embed stablecoins into payment flows in the same way they use fiat – supporting real-time cross-border movement of value with minimal friction.

“This award is a great milestone for OpenPayd and a strong validation of the work we’re doing to modernise global payments infrastructure,” said Iana Dimitrova, CEO at OpenPayd. “Being recognised alongside some of the most established names in financial services highlights the increasing demand for stablecoin-enabled payment rails that are scalable, compliant and built for enterprise adoption.”

OpenPayd’s stablecoin infrastructure is designed to help financial institutions, fintechs and global businesses unlock new capabilities, including:

• Receiving and sending stablecoin payments globally
• Holding and managing stablecoins alongside fiat
• Instant cross-border settlement
• Seamless conversion between stablecoins and traditional currencies
• Embedding stablecoins into existing treasury and payment workflows

Unlike siloed or blockchain-specific solutions, OpenPayd’s rails-agnostic infrastructure provides the flexibility businesses need to operate across multiple networks and payment ecosystems, delivering real-time settlement without sacrificing usability or control.

The award reinforces OpenPayd’s position at the forefront of next-generation payments, as stablecoins increasingly become a mainstream tool for faster, more efficient global commerce.

About OpenPayd

OpenPayd is building the universal financial infrastructure for the digital economy. Founded in 2018 by Dr. Ozan Ozerk, their rails-agnostic platform enables businesses to move and manage money globally – across fiat and digital assets – through a single, powerful API. OpenPayd provides embedded accounts, FX, domestic and international payments, Open Banking, and stablecoin on/off ramps – delivering interoperability between traditional finance and digital assets. With one of the most comprehensive banking networks in the market, OpenPayd enables real-time money movement, everywhere. 

Trusted by global brands including eToro, Kraken, OKX, and B2C2, they process more than $180 billion in annual volumes for over 1000 businesses. OpenPayd is the infrastructure layer powering the next generation of financial services.

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