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About Alta
Metal is a settlement network and Layer 1 for tokenized finance, aiming to put equities, bonds and other real-world instruments onto a chain with identity and permissioning built in, serving institutions and AI agents. It targets public chains that lack traceable identity and permission controls, which regulators find unacceptable for securities-like assets.
The mechanism writes identity checks and authorization into the account layer so transactions execute within permitted scope, with on- and off-ramps covering multiple currencies and local clearing rails; agent-native execution interfaces let AI agents act within granted limits. The approach is close to institutional stablecoin settlement chains, and viability depends on the number of licensed institutions and issuers onboarded rather than on chain performance.
Metal announced the close of its seed round on June 25, 2026, led by cross-border payments firm Airwallex and its fund Capital49. An SEC Form D filed on September 11 disclosed an offering target of $32.525 million with $26.4 million sold to 25 investors; on October 4, Australian media reported the round had ultimately reached about $32.5 million (roughly A$49 million).
Future strategy and roadmap: After the seed round led by Airwallex, Metal plans to turn tokenized bank deposits, money-market funds, Treasuries, equities and securities into on-chain settleable products one by one, and with Airwallex's fiat rails and global payment scenes build a compliant clearing layer connecting institutional trading markets. Proceeds fund product and compliance teams to move traditional asset on-chain settlement from concept to multi-asset delivery.
Marshall Hayner — Co-founder & CEO; built the first Facebook Bitcoin wallet, worked on Stellar and sits on the Dogecoin Foundation board.
Glenn Mariën — Co-founder & CTO; created Dogechain.info, the first online Dogecoin wallet.
Irina Berkon — Chief Financial Officer.
John Ainsworth — General Manager; former senior leader at Mastercard and Visa.
Alta’s most notable recent team change is Catherine Porter joining in June 2026 as President and Co-Founder. She previously led global partnerships for Meta’s Libra project, bringing experience in big tech and crypto compliance (globenewswire.com).
No departures or other hires have been confirmed. Porter joins as Alta announced $80 million in total funding and rebranded from Metal to focus on a compliance-native Layer 1 settlement network for institutions (fintechbits.net).