Astra, a leading provider of infrastructure for faster payments, today announced a partnership with Fortress Trust, a leading custodial trust company in the blockchain infrastructure space, to bring enhanced security and real-time settlement to new use cases within financial technology. By combining their respective best-in-class solutions, the two companies offer customers a faster, more secure, and more efficient payment solution for Web3 and cryptocurrency products.

Leveraging Astra's expertise in faster payments and Fortress's experience in Web3 finance, the partnership will enable developers to add a complete fiat-to-crypto payment flow to their software through a single API. This innovative solution will allow companies to offer multiple payment types, including Visa Direct and accelerated ACH, giving users flexible options to make deposits easily, quickly, and safely.

"Together, Astra and Fortress are committed to simplifying and accelerating payments for the broader fintech ecosystem, and this partnership is a significant step towards achieving that goal,” said Gil Akos, CEO of Astra. "We are excited to collaborate with such an innovative provider of regulatory infrastructure for blockchain, and look forward to offering our shared customers a truly unique payment experience.”

Through this partnership, customers can now easily embed both Web3 and instant transfer settlement into their existing infrastructure without capital commitments, pre-funding credit facilities, or complicated technical integrations. This results in greater control over transactions and unparalleled security and scalability for their business.

"By partnering with Gil and the team at Astra, we can continue to work to create a platform that will revolutionize the payment landscape," said Scott Purcell, Founder and CEO of Fortress. "Our collaboration will combine the best of both worlds and offer users a seamless and secure payment solution that meets the demands of the digital economy and the Web3 platforms building toward its future."

Marking a notable milestone in the payments industry, this collaboration meets the ever-evolving needs of consumers across fiat and Web3 use cases. To learn more about the impact of Astra’s instant payments technology, visit here. For more information on how Fortress can help scale Web3 initiatives, visit here.

About Astra

Astra offers advanced payment infrastructure, powering faster transfers for fintech products, financial institutions, and enterprises. Astra’s proprietary, vertically-integrated API enables developers to offer instant payments and accelerated bank transfers, with built-in optimizations to reduce risk. For more information, visit https://astrafi.com.

About Fortress Trust

Fortress Trust Company is a financial institution that provides Web3 financial, regulatory and technology infrastructure for blockchain innovators from Fortune 500 businesses to fintech startups who are building blockchain-based services that will transform the world. Fortress is the back-end infrastructure layer for payments, asset tokenization, regulated custody, compliance, and other services that enable B2B clients to launch quickly and scale effortlessly. For more information, visit Fortress.io

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