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{"actor":"system:backfill","investigation_id":"03f2d9a6-e41e-4fe7-9811-071911360324","kind":"publish","page_slug":"alpaca","published_at":"2026-11-06T00:23:37.969Z","sequence_num":1,"snapshot":{"content_type":"investigation","entity_name":"Alpaca","sections":[{"content":"Alpaca is a financial technology company that provides brokerage infrastructure via API, allowing other companies to embed stock and cryptocurrency trading into their own applications. The company was founded in 2015 (sources vary, with some citing 2017) by Yoshi Yokokawa and Hitoshi Harada; Harada is listed as co-founder and holds the title of CTO and/or CPO depending on the source. Alpaca's securities brokerage services are offered through its subsidiary, Alpaca Securities LLC, a FINRA member broker-dealer, while crypto services are offered through Alpaca Crypto LLC, a FinCEN-registered money services business that is not a member of FINRA or SIPC. Alpaca's own materials state it has facilitated over 9 million brokerage accounts across 40+ countries.","heading":"Company Overview","severity":"low","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Alpaca - About Us","type":"official","url":"https://alpaca.markets/about"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Alpaca disclosures - securities forms","type":"official","url":"https://alpaca.markets/disclosures/securities-forms"}]},{"content":"This entity, Alpaca (AlpacaDB, Inc. / Alpaca Securities LLC), is an API-based equities and crypto brokerage company headquartered in the United States. It is a separate entity from 'Alpaca Finance,' a Binance Smart Chain-based decentralized lending and leveraged yield farming protocol. The two share only a name; no common ownership or operational link was found in available sources.","heading":"Clarification: Distinct from Alpaca Finance","severity":"low","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Alpaca - About Us","type":"official","url":"https://alpaca.markets/about"}]},{"content":"Alpaca Securities LLC entered into a settlement (Letter of Acceptance, Waiver and Consent) with FINRA resulting in a $300,000 fine and censure over alleged violations. According to a secondary report describing the AWC, FINRA alleged that between April 2021 and June 2025, Alpaca failed to timely report approximately 1.87 million transactions to the FINRA/Nasdaq Trade Reporting Facility, in violation of FINRA Rules 6380A and 2010. Separately, from February 2021 to May 2023, the firm allegedly submitted inaccurate trade reports, including wrong execution quantities on over 6,700 transactions and roughly 2.2 million reports omitting a required prior reference price modifier and timestamp, violating Rules 6380A, 6622, and 2010. FINRA also alleged that from December 2020 through February 2026, Alpaca lacked a reasonably designed supervisory system and written supervisory procedures to ensure compliance with trade reporting rules, violating Rules 3110 and 2010. As is standard in FINRA AWC settlements, the firm is understood to have consented to the findings without admitting or denying them. The primary FINRA AWC document was not independently located during this research; findings are sourced from a secondary trade-publication account of the settlement, so confidence in the precise figures is moderate.","heading":"FINRA Enforcement Action — Trade Reporting and Supervisory Failures","severity":"medium","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"FINRA imposes $300k fine on Alpaca Securities for alleged trade reporting deficiencies","type":"news_article","url":"https://fxnewsgroup.com/forex-news/regulatory/finra-imposes-300k-fine-on-alpaca-securities-for-alleged-trade-reporting-deficiencies"},{"credibility":2,"name":"FINRA issues AWC: trade reporting failures (Orrick InfoBytes)","type":"news_article","url":"https://infobytes.orrick.com/2024-09-27/finra-issues-awc-trade-reporting-failures/"}]},{"content":"Alpaca's own public disclosures state that cryptocurrency services are provided through Alpaca Crypto LLC, which is not a member of FINRA or SIPC, meaning crypto holdings through Alpaca do not carry the same regulatory protections as its equities brokerage. Alpaca's disclosures warn that cryptocurrency trading can lead to large, immediate, and permanent loss of financial value. This is a standard disclosure found across crypto-enabled brokerages rather than evidence of wrongdoing, but it is a materially relevant risk factor for users comparing Alpaca's crypto offering to its regulated securities business.","heading":"Crypto Trading Risk Disclosures","severity":"low","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Alpaca disclosures - securities forms","type":"official","url":"https://alpaca.markets/disclosures/securities-forms"}]},{"content":"Alpaca has raised capital across several rounds: a $50 million Series B in 2021 led by Tribe Capital with participation from Horizons Ventures, Eldridge, Positive Sum, Portage Ventures, Spark Capital, and Social Leverage, coinciding with the announcement of its crypto trading offering; a Series C round reported at approximately $52 million; and a $150 million Series D led by Drive Capital that valued the company at $1.15 billion, alongside a reported $40 million credit line. Reported dates for the Series C and Series D rounds vary somewhat between sources (e.g., 2023 vs. 2025 for Series C), so date precision is limited to the year/month level.","heading":"Funding History and Valuation","severity":"low","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Alpaca Raises $50 Million Series B & Announces Crypto Offering","type":"official","url":"https://alpaca.markets/blog/alpaca-raises-50-million-series-b-announces-crypto/"},{"credibility":1,"name":"TechCrunch: Alpaca raises $50M to rapidly scale its equities trading API business","type":"news_article","url":"https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/30/alpaca-raises-50m-to-rapidly-scale-its-equities-trading-api-business/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Alpaca Raises $150 Million at a $1.15B Valuation to Build the Global Standard for Brokerage Infrastructure","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.cityam.com/?p=2392595"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Alpaca bags $150m Series D at $1.15bn valuation","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.fintechfutures.com/venture-capital-funding/alpaca-raises-150m-series-d"}]},{"content":"Alpaca was co-founded by Yoshi Yokokawa (CEO) and Hitoshi Harada, who is described in company and speaker materials as co-founder, CTO, and/or CPO, leading technology and product strategy. Before Alpaca, Harada is reported to have worked as a Principal Engineer at Pivotal and to have contributed to open-source PostgreSQL development. No allegations of individual wrongdoing by Harada or Yokokawa were found in available sources; the FINRA action described above was taken against the corporate entity Alpaca Securities LLC, not against any named individual.","heading":"Leadership","severity":"low","sources":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Speaker profile, WebX 2026","type":"other","url":"https://webx-asia.com/speaker/214"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Alpaca - About Us","type":"official","url":"https://alpaca.markets/about"}]}],"sources_used":[{"credibility":2,"name":"Alpaca - About Us","type":"official","url":"https://alpaca.markets/about"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Alpaca disclosures - securities forms","type":"official","url":"https://alpaca.markets/disclosures/securities-forms"},{"credibility":2,"name":"FINRA imposes $300k fine on Alpaca Securities for alleged trade reporting deficiencies","type":"news_article","url":"https://fxnewsgroup.com/forex-news/regulatory/finra-imposes-300k-fine-on-alpaca-securities-for-alleged-trade-reporting-deficiencies"},{"credibility":2,"name":"FINRA issues AWC: trade reporting failures (Orrick InfoBytes)","type":"news_article","url":"https://infobytes.orrick.com/2024-09-27/finra-issues-awc-trade-reporting-failures/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Alpaca Raises $50 Million Series B & Announces Crypto Offering","type":"official","url":"https://alpaca.markets/blog/alpaca-raises-50-million-series-b-announces-crypto/"},{"credibility":1,"name":"TechCrunch: Alpaca raises $50M to rapidly scale its equities trading API business","type":"news_article","url":"https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/30/alpaca-raises-50m-to-rapidly-scale-its-equities-trading-api-business/"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Alpaca Raises $150 Million at a $1.15B Valuation to Build the Global Standard for Brokerage Infrastructure","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.cityam.com/?p=2392595"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Alpaca bags $150m Series D at $1.15bn valuation","type":"news_article","url":"https://www.fintechfutures.com/venture-capital-funding/alpaca-raises-150m-series-d"},{"credibility":2,"name":"Speaker profile, WebX 2026","type":"other","url":"https://webx-asia.com/speaker/214"}],"summary":"Alpaca (operating as AlpacaDB, Inc., with broker-dealer subsidiary Alpaca Securities LLC) is a US-based API-first brokerage infrastructure company founded in 2015, providing commission-free equities and crypto trading APIs to fintechs and institutions. This page concerns the brokerage-API company, not the unrelated DeFi lending protocol 'Alpaca Finance.' Alpaca has raised over $300 million across multiple funding rounds and was most recently valued at $1.15 billion; its regulated subsidiary was fined $300,000 by FINRA in 2026 over alleged trade-reporting and supervisory failures spanning 2020–2025.","timeline":[{"date":"2015","event":"Alpaca founded (some sources cite 2017 as the founding year; discrepancy unresolved).","source":"Alpaca About page / company profiles","source_url":"https://alpaca.markets/about"},{"date":"2021-08","event":"Alpaca raises $50 million Series B funding and announces a cryptocurrency trading offering.","source":"Alpaca blog / TechCrunch","source_url":"https://techcrunch.com/2021/08/30/alpaca-raises-50m-to-rapidly-scale-its-equities-trading-api-business/"},{"date":"2025","event":"Alpaca raises approximately $150 million Series D funding led by Drive Capital, reaching a $1.15 billion valuation.","source":"City A.M. / FinTech Futures","source_url":"https://www.fintechfutures.com/venture-capital-funding/alpaca-raises-150m-series-d"},{"date":"2026-03","event":"FINRA settlement reported: Alpaca Securities LLC fined $300,000 and censured over alleged trade-reporting failures (April 2021–June 2025) and supervisory deficiencies (December 2020–February 2026).","source":"fxnewsgroup.com report on FINRA AWC","source_url":"https://fxnewsgroup.com/forex-news/regulatory/finra-imposes-300k-fine-on-alpaca-securities-for-alleged-trade-reporting-deficiencies"}]},"v":1}