ZBD, a payments company focused on enabling real-money transactions inside games and consumer apps, said it has secured $40 million in Series C financing commitments led by Blockstream Capital Partners (BCP). The company positions itself as a fully licensed, vertically integrated payments provider built specifically for gaming, using the Bitcoin Lightning Network to support embedded payments and rewards at scale.
The company said it already processes more than 120 million transactions per year and has doubled the number of games integrated with its software development kit over the past 12 months. ZBD cited adoption by developers, including TapNation, Fumb Games, and PlayEmber, which use ZBD’s infrastructure to deliver rewards in fiat currencies, bitcoin, and gift cards.
ZBD is targeting a segment of the games economy, it says, that is underserved by traditional payment innovations. While much of the industry’s monetization tooling has historically concentrated on “pay-ins” from players—such as in-app purchases—ZBD is emphasizing “payouts,” or instant real-money earnings embedded directly into gameplay. The company argues that real-money rewards can be delivered compliantly and with low friction, creating a two-way value exchange that can improve engagement and lifetime value for publishers and developers.
BCP said its interest in ZBD is driven by the combination of native Bitcoin payments technology and a licensing framework that it described as difficult to replicate across key regulatory jurisdictions. ZBD, for its part, said its regulatory posture is central to its roadmap, enabling it to extend beyond rewards into a broader suite of financial services for game publishers.
In 2025, ZBD said it became one of the first companies to secure both MiCAR and EMI licenses in the Netherlands, which it said enables regulated fiat and crypto payment services across the European Economic Area. The company also said it holds Money Transmitter Licenses in the United States. With that regulatory foundation, ZBD said its capabilities can expand beyond rewards to products including card issuance, bank transfers, virtual IBAN creation, and currency exchange.
Looking ahead, ZBD said it plans to bring a “complete, compliance-ready payments stack” to market during 2026, aimed at console, PC, and mobile publishers. The company’s pitch is that publishers can take greater ownership of money movement inside games, shifting payments from an operational cost into a strategic capability that supports new player experiences and revenue streams. ZBD also framed the opportunity as extending beyond traditional games to digital-first ecosystems such as user-generated content platforms and livestream tipping, where creators and audiences increasingly expect instant, low-friction transfers.
The company said the Series C commitments will support scaling its existing mobile payouts traction while building more comprehensive offerings for a wider set of game publishers. Planned initiatives include expanding its licensing footprint globally, growing commercial operations across North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia-Pacific, and rolling out new developer tools, platform enhancements, and additional game integrations through 2026.
KEY QUOTES:
“Our mission is simple: to make money work in games by providing all-in-one payments technology to publishers and developers. The current financial and reward systems in games are slow and unwieldy, but ZBD is bringing the power of the Lightning network to deliver rewards at speed, while giving developers the flexibility to choose how they are presented. We’re happy that BCP see the value in our mission and our tech, and we’re delighted to welcome them on board.”
Ben Cousens, Chief Strategy Officer, ZBD
“We have been following ZBD for many years and believe it has achieved a rare pairing of native Bitcoin payments technology with an expansive and hard-to-replicate licensing framework across key regulatory regimes. This places ZBD among a very small group of credible Bitcoin payment service providers. We strongly believe in its mission to drive the convergence of payments and the Bitcoin Lightning Network, particularly within digital-first ecosystems such as gaming.”
Nicolas Brand, Blockstream Capital Partners
“ZBD is the payments infrastructure for the future of video games and virtual worlds, where real money moves natively through content. By giving developers and publishers full control of their payments infrastructure, we’re maximizing their revenue and creating additional value streams with new, real-money experiences that can be deeply embedded into gameplay.”
Simon Cowell, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, ZBD
