Para Announces REST API: The First Instant Wallet Infrastructure for Fintechs and Consumer Apps

WHY THIS MATTERS:

Australia has become a proving ground for global fintechs looking to move beyond single-use products and embed themselves into customers’ everyday financial lives. What began as travel-focused FX apps are now competing head-on with incumbent banks across payments, wealth, lending and business services. The acceleration of merchant acquiring and account-to-account payments highlights a broader shift toward fintechs owning more of the transaction lifecycle, particularly for SMEs seeking integrated financial tooling. Rapid growth in customer adoption and transaction volumes reflects changing expectations around digital-first finance—where speed, product breadth and seamless user experience matter more than brand legacy. As competition intensifies, Australia is emerging as a key market where fintech scale, localisation and regulatory execution converge.

Para, a company providing wallets and payments infrastructure for over 10 million users, has publicly launched its REST API. The software enables fintechs and consumer applications with existing userbases to integrate the security, speed, and utility of blockchain wallets without changing the app’s UI or asking users to onboard to new systems. This launch accelerates the convergence of traditional fintech and crypto by treating blockchain as background infrastructure to power consumer-first experiences, such as embedded wallet infrastructure and stablecoin payments.

“Our thesis is that blockchain rails and wallet infrastructure should exist solely to simplify payments,” said Nitya Subramanian, Founder and CEO of Para, “they do this best when they go unnoticed. When wallets fade into the background, they become a vehicle for platforms to control customer relationships, distribution, and access in a rapidly evolving payments landscape.”

The REST API fills a key gap for projects recognising blockchain’s upside of low costs, programmability, global reach, and security. It allows platforms to automatically provision wallets for every existing customer at signup or via API calls and to execute transactions programmatically on behalf of users using their own authentication and policy logic, without requiring any UI/UX changes or user education about crypto.

Stablecoin adoption is surging with transaction volumes in the trillions annually, and major players like Visa and Mastercard are expanding their stablecoin settlement capabilities, whilst fintechs and cross-border payment providers integrate them for lower costs and speed.

REST API is particularly impactful for businesses, which may otherwise get left behind in this global transition to crypto rails. It enables them to easily add stablecoin payments and cross-border rails to their product, including payments, payouts, and treasury operations executed server-side, enabling them to maintain their position and partake in a rapidly changing global market by enabling customers to pay in USDC or other stablecoins.

There are already projects building on the REST API. Coala Pay, a blockchain-powered platform for humanitarian aid funding, is leveraging Para’s REST API, streamlining stablecoin-based payments and cross-border aid distribution. Para’s infrastructure enables Coala Pay to automatically provision wallets for charities and donors, reducing foreign currency risk and delivering faster, more transparent funding to grassroots organisations.

Developers and fintechs can get started today by integrating Para’s REST API to add stablecoin payments, cross-border rails, and embedded wallets, while keeping all wallet operations server-side and invisible to end users.

FF NEWS TAKE:
Revolut’s momentum in Australia signals a transition from challenger to serious multi-product financial platform. The next test will be sustainability—maintaining growth while deepening engagement across both consumers and businesses. Watch closely how merchant services and business banking shape its competitive position against local banks and homegrown fintechs in 2026.

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