Payments Brief: May 18, 2026

Payments and FinTech Daily delivers a concise, executive-level briefing on the most important developments in payments, banking, and financial technology. In today's episode: Morgan Stanley launches a spot Bitcoin ETF, intensifying the crypto ETF fee battle; eToro's strategic acquisition of Zengo circumvents MiCA regulations in Europe; Intercontinental Exchange invests $2 billion in Polymarket, advancing prediction markets; Bullish acquires Equiniti for a $4.2 billion tokenized securities infrastructure; Coinbase shifts to a multi-asset platform with stock trading and AI financial tools; Revolut introduces AI assistance to enhance banking interfaces; Visa's AI shopping assistant pilots reshape commerce; Stripe's valuation surges as it nears $2 trillion in transactions. Today's episode is brought to you by: BNewshel Consulting Affiliate Links:ElevenLabs: try.elevenlabs.ioSquare: squareup.com/refer