KAST nominated in two Institutional 100 Awards categories

KAST was nominated in two categories at the Institutional 100 Awards: Best Digital Assets Neobank and Best Digital Assets Fintech. The nominations cite the company’s stablecoin-native platform and its user base of more than 1 million across 170+ countries.

The company reported roughly $5 billion in annualized transaction volume and card acceptance at about 150 million merchants. KAST integrates with real-time settlement systems, including Fedwire and SWIFT. In March 2026 the firm closed an $80 million Series A round led by QED Investors and Left Lane Capital, with participation from Peak XV Partners, HSG and DST Global Partners.

KAST’s core architecture treats digital dollars as the operating layer for accounts, transfers, card payments and yield products. Customer balances are held and moved as stablecoins, which the company says lets it offer USD-denominated accounts, instant global payouts and Visa-backed cards without requiring users to open a local bank account.

Founder and CEO Raagulan Pathy noted that building on stablecoins from the start allowed faster geographic expansion than models that began on traditional banking rails. “The first generation of neobanks did a great job giving a slick interface, but they still operated within the traditional financial system. Being stablecoin native, we can be in 150-plus countries very early. That’s what we’ve done from day one,” he said.

On the consumer side, KAST Earn offers vault products to deploy idle USD. The Gauntlet Alpha Vault allocates funds to DeFi strategies managed by Gauntlet. The USD Prime Vault uses USDKY, a stablecoin the company describes as backed by short-term U.S. Treasury bills through M0. KAST says users can withdraw funds without lockups and that returns appear in vault balances rather than as separate interest payouts.

KAST Business targets global teams, founders, agencies and operators that need payroll, payouts, virtual cards and cross-border spending in a single platform. The company is opening access in phased waves and reviews business applications manually during onboarding.

Security and custody are part of the company’s disclosures. KAST works with Fireblocks, BitGo and other enterprise security partners for asset protection. Financial services on the platform are provided through licensed, regulated partners.

The Institutional 100 Awards recognize firms building infrastructure and systems for digital finance. The nominations list KAST among companies developing stablecoin-based accounts, payments and business tools.