PaperChain

What PaperChain does

PaperChain was a New York-based fintech founded in 2019 by Daniel Dewar that provided independent digital media artists with on-demand, real-time access to their earned royalty payments. The company's core product was a mobile application enabling artists to cash out earnings daily rather than waiting for traditional payment cycles, and to monitor royalty inflows as they accrued. Artist feedback described the experience as comparable to watching stock prices update in real time.

The platform was architected on decentralized finance infrastructure, integrating MakerDAO and Centrifuge DeFi protocols to source low-cost liquidity against future royalty earnings. This DeFi-based capital stack was the primary technical differentiator, demonstrating that on-demand capital could be viably delivered to independent creators as an alternative to traditional music industry financing. PaperChain paid out over $1 million in royalties across more than 4,000 artists and held a waitlist of additional creators.

The company operated as a product-led growth business, distributing its app directly to artists without enterprise sales motion. PaperChain ceased operations in 2025 after concluding that scaling products adjacent to music distribution was structurally difficult without holding the underlying distribution license. The founder subsequently joined UnitedMasters, where a Real-Time Royalties product continuing the PaperChain thesis has been launched.

Name

PaperChain

Website

https://paperchain.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

2019

Operating status

Closed

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

PaperChain was a New York fintech that gave independent music artists real-time, on-demand access to their earned digital royalties via a mobile app backed by DeFi protocols, before ceasing operations in 2025.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Music Royalty Fintech

NAICS

Financial Transactions Processing, Reserve, and Clearinghouse Activities (52232), Sales Financing (52222)

SIC

Finance Services (6199)

akta.pro primary industry

Micropayments & Streaming Payments (Crypto) (FSADAIAM)

akta.pro secondary industries

Payments, Remittances & Merchant Acceptance (checkout, invoicing, payroll) (FSAPAEAE), Royalties, Rights & Revenue Management (on-chain royalties, splits, licensing, enforcement) (FSAPAFAC)

Keywords

• Music royalty payments
• DeFi capital access
• Real-time artist payouts
• Royalty-backed financing
• Creator fintech platform

Headquarters

HQ city

New York

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Operations

Revenue model

1. Capital Access Fees: Paperchain provided artists with on-demand access to capital against their future royalty earnings, likely earning fees or interest on the capital advanced. The company proved that low-cost capital was viable through DeFi protocols.

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Core offering

PaperChain built a real-time royalty payment platform that used decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols — specifically MakerDAO and Centrifuge — to provide instant, on-demand capital advances to independent music artists against their earned streaming royalties. The platform ingested streaming payment data and disbursed liquidity directly to creators via a mobile app, bypassing the 60–120 day delay typical of traditional royalty payouts.

Product overview

Paperchain was a single, unified product offering real-time royalty payment services for the digital media/music industry. The platform provided artists with instant, on-demand access to their earned royalties by leveraging decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, offering a novel alternative to traditional finance for capital access. The company ceased operations in 2025 due to challenges in product distribution as a non-license holder.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• PaperChain Real-Time Royalty Advance Platform A mobile-app platform for independent music artists that ingests streaming royalty data in real time and issues on-demand capital advances against those royalties using DeFi liquidity sourced from MakerDAO and Centrifuge. Designed for individual creators who lack access to traditional banking or working capital and would otherwise wait 60-120 days for royalty payouts.

Quantifiable outcome

• $1 million+ in royalties paid to 4,000+ artists

Named customers1 record

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature2 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• MakerDAOcoreTechnology or IntegrationPaperchain leveraged MakerDAO's DeFi protocol to access capital pools for providing on-demand royalty advances to artists. MakerDAO provided the underlying liquidity infrastructure that enabled low-cost capital access.
• CentrifugecoreTechnology or IntegrationPaperchain utilized Centrifuge's DeFi protocol as part of its infrastructure for providing real-time, on-demand capital to music artists against their royalty earnings. Centrifuge enabled the alternative financing approach that differentiated Paperchain from traditional finance.

Scale indicators3 records

Recent moves4 records

Expansion highlights3 records

Others

• MakerDAO: Decentralized lending protocol that provided the capital liquidity pool for Paperchain's advances. Comparable as the underlying DeFi primitive that enabled the business model.
• Centrifuge: DeFi protocol for tokenizing real-world assets (including receivables and royalties) that Paperchain integrated as core capital infrastructure. Relevant as both infrastructure partner and as a potential competitor/integrator for royalty-backed lending.

Broad incumbents

• UnitedMasters: Music distribution platform that acquired the founder and now offers the Real-Time Royalties product. As a license holder and distributor, it has the distribution leverage Paperchain lacked, making it the most direct benchmark for the realized thesis.
• Vydia: Music distribution and rights management platform serving independent labels and artists with royalty processing. Comparable as a license-holder-adjacent player that could bundle real-time royalty features.
• DistroKid: Largest independent music distributor and a license holder in the exact position Paperchain needed to be. Represents the structural moat that prevented Paperchain from scaling distribution.
• Songtrust: Music publishing administration platform that collects royalties globally and pays rights holders. Operates in the royalty payment value chain that Paperchain tried to accelerate.

Direct peers

• Royalty Exchange: Marketplace for buying and selling royalty streams, with a secondary marketplace for royalty advances. Directly comparable business model of monetizing future royalty cash flows for upfront capital.

Emerging players

• ANote Music: Music royalty investment marketplace using blockchain for fractional ownership of royalty streams. Comparable in the application of crypto/DeFi rails to music royalty liquidity.
• Sound.xyz: Web3 music platform using NFTs and on-chain mechanics to enable direct artist-to-fan monetization and real-time royalty splits. Shares the thesis of unlocking faster, more transparent music payments via crypto.
• Audius: Web3-native music streaming platform built on decentralized infrastructure with on-chain royalty distribution. Comparable to Paperchain in its use of crypto rails for music payments and direct-to-artist monetization.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat2 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights5 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/paperchainio

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about PaperChain