Underdog Partners with Zero Hash to Enable Stablecoin Funding for Fantasy Sports

Underdog is integrating stablecoin and cryptocurrency funding into its platform through a partnership with Zero Hash. For fintech professionals, this move highlights the growing utility of onchain assets in high-velocity markets, enabling 24/7 account settlement that bypasses the limitations of traditional fiat banking rails during weekends and evenings.

What was announced

Underdog users will soon be able to fund their accounts directly with supported stablecoins and digital assets. This new capability is expected to roll out to eligible users later this year. The integration is designed to provide a native experience within the Underdog app, abstracting away the complexities of wallet addresses and chain selection. By utilizing Zero Hash’s onchain infrastructure, the platform aims to offer near-instant account funding 24/7/365.

This speed is particularly relevant for prediction markets and fantasy sports contests, where opportunities often arise in real-time and require immediate liquidity. Stablecoins allow for instant, real-time settlement, ensuring that funding keeps up with the speed of live games and market shifts. The move follows Underdog’s recent launch of its own federally licensed prediction market exchange. The company currently holds a complete license stack, including a Designated Contract Market (DCM), Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO), and Futures Commission Merchant (FCM), all of which are wholly owned and operated by the firm. This infrastructure allows Underdog to operate as a vertically integrated exchange, and the addition of stablecoin rails is intended to align the speed of payments with the speed of the underlying market technology.

The companies involved

Underdog is a pioneer in the prediction market and fantasy sports sector, recently expanding its footprint by launching its own federally licensed exchange. By controlling the full stack of derivatives licensing, the company has positioned itself as a significant player in the regulated US prediction market landscape, operating its own DCM, DCO, and FCM. This vertical integration is rare in the sports prediction space and allows the company to manage the end-to-end user experience.

Zero Hash is a leading onchain infrastructure provider that enables businesses to integrate digital assets into their existing platforms. The company provides the regulatory and technology rails necessary for firms to offer crypto-related services without building the infrastructure from scratch. Zero Hash has established a broad presence in the fintech ecosystem, facilitating everything from retail crypto trading to institutional liquidity and stablecoin payments. The partnership with Underdog represents a further extension of Zero Hash’s reach into the gaming and prediction market verticals, where the 24/7 nature of blockchain technology offers a distinct advantage over legacy financial systems that are constrained by traditional banking hours.

What FF News has reported before

FF News has followed Zero Hash’s rapid expansion across the onchain finance sector through numerous integrations and product launches. Recently, the company launched AUTH, a tool designed to simplify onchain asset movements and account linking. The firm has also been active in the institutional space, having integrated with Selini Capital to boost liquidity and collaborating with Ava Labs on a report highlighting the institutional shift toward onchain finance. Additionally, Zero Hash recently integrated the Tempo Blockchain to scale its stablecoin payment capabilities.

What this means

This integration signals a shift where stablecoins are no longer just speculative assets but essential infrastructure for high-velocity trading environments. By bypassing the T+1 or T+2 settlement cycles of traditional banking, Underdog is putting pressure on competitors who still rely on legacy rails. The move raises questions for the broader fintech sector about the sustainability of fiat-only platforms in markets that operate 24/7. As regulatory clarity improves, the "abstraction" of blockchain—where the user doesn't necessarily know they are using a wallet—will likely become the standard for consumer-facing fintech applications looking to solve the "weekend gap" in liquidity.