Fintech Stacks

Robinhood just filed for a second venture fund — and if Fund I's 119% return is any indication, retail investors are going to line up fast. eToro crushed earnings estimates by 28% and still dropped 7% because crypto volumes cratered. And Sezzle locked in $300 million at nearly 300 basis points cheaper than two years ago. We break down what all three moves mean and why the underlying themes connect more than they look like at first glance.

Three major fintech moves dropped on the same Monday — and none of them were planned together. We break down Wise's Nasdaq debut and what it means for the US cross-border payments market, Circle's mixed earnings and the $222M Arc token raise backed by BlackRock and Apollo, and SoFi's acquisition of PrimaryBid, a UK fintech that was worth $190M three years ago and just got scooped up at a steep discount. It's a lot. Let's get into it.

This week's fintech news didn't wait for Monday. Ramp is reportedly raising $750 million at a $40 billion-plus valuation — and the numbers behind it are genuinely hard to ignore. Kraken's parent Payward just dropped $600 million on a Hong Kong stablecoin payments company as it sprints toward an IPO. And SoFi quietly acquired an AI-powered trading platform that could change how its 14 million members invest. We break all three down — what it means, why it matters, and what to watch next.

Three of fintech's biggest names reported earnings on the same Thursday night and the results could not have been more different. We break down why Block's AI restructuring is actually working, what Coinbase's brutal miss means for crypto-dependent business models, and how Affirm keeps beating a Street that should know better by now.

Chime dropped its first GAAP profit as a public company today — and immediately authorized a $200M buyback. NerdWallet beat estimates by a penny and quietly held its ground. And Ibotta just landed a multi-year exclusive deal with Uber that could change how the entire promotions industry moves money. Three earnings, three very different stories, one very stacked Wednesday in fintech.

Bullish just dropped the biggest crypto acquisition in history — $4.2 billion for Equiniti, the firm that literally keeps the shareholder records for 2,500 public companies. We break down why this is the most important fintech infrastructure move in years. Plus: Shopify crushed Q1 with its first-ever $100B GMV quarter and still fell 15%, and PayPal beat estimates while announcing the slowest, most confidence-draining restructuring plan in recent memory. It's a lot for a Tuesday.

The fintech shift everyone's been talking about isn't coming — it's here. This episode breaks down Galaxy Digital's monster April, why FIS and Anthropic teaming up on financial crime compliance is a bigger deal than it sounds, and how Circle just scored two regulatory wins in one day. AI and stablecoins are rewriting the rulebook in real time. We've got the receipts.

This week, three fintech moves happened quietly over the weekend — and each one is a bigger deal than the headlines suggest. We break down how Nubank launched US banking products without its OCC charter by teaming up with Lead Bank, why Meta's USDC creator payouts are a watershed stablecoin moment, and what Bakkt's DTR acquisition actually means for the future of cross-border settlement. Pour something and hit play.

Yesterday was a big one. Mastercard crushed Q1 earnings and dropped agentic commerce signals that Wall Street is still processing. Riot Platforms officially became a data center company — and it's selling Bitcoin to pay for it. And Shopify quietly filed to become a money transmitter in all 50 states. We break down what all three moves mean for the fintech stack and why the next 90 days could be decisive for each of these names.

Fintech stocks are getting wrecked while Big Tech prints money on AI — and today's episode breaks down exactly why. We dig into SoFi's record quarter that somehow still disappointed Wall Street, PayPal's new CEO making the most consequential org move in years, and how Better and Stripe just built a debit card aimed at the largest untapped equity market in America. Buckle up.

Fintech earnings season kicked off with a thud from Robinhood — Q1 revenue missed after analysts had already lowered the bar 10 times. But the real stories are happening off the tape: Mercury just scored a federal bank charter, and Customers Bank is letting OpenAI run its back office. We break down what all three mean for where fintech is actually headed in 2026.

Intuit just embedded TurboTax, QuickBooks, and Credit Karma directly into Claude — and it's bigger than it sounds. Adyen made its first-ever acquisition, dropping $879M on a loyalty platform that could reshape how merchants win at checkout. And LendingClub crushed Q1 with a 340% EPS jump and a 15% after-hours pop. We break down what all three mean for the future of fintech and your portfolio.

Coinbase just listed the first FCA-registered pound-backed stablecoin and launched crypto lending in the UK — all before regulators even finish writing the rules. Western Union badly missed Q1 earnings but dropped a stablecoin roadmap that could actually matter. And the CB Insights Q1 report shows fintech dealmaking at a multi-year low — but the deals that ARE happening are massive. We break down what all three mean for your portfolio heading into the most volatile fintech earnings week of 2026.

Yesterday was a big one. American Express beat earnings estimates by 7%, acquired an AI startup that wants to kill the expense report, and reaffirmed it's going on offense in commercial fintech. Nasdaq quietly posted one of its best quarters ever — and nobody's talking about it. And the federal government just cracked open a 30-year credit scoring monopoly that touches every single American who wants to buy a home. We break all three down, what they mean for investors, and who wins and loses as the dust settles.

Block just dropped managed accounts for kids as young as six, Visa and TikTok launched a creator debit card that's bigger than it looks, and LendingClub officially retired its name for something called Happen Bank. Today we break down what all three have in common: the race to own customers before anyone else does. Buckle up — fintech just went kindergarten.

Three major fintech earnings hit the tape on the same Tuesday — and the results couldn't be more different. Synchrony crushed it with record purchase volume and a $6.5B buyback, Capital One missed estimates while juggling two massive integrations, and Interactive Brokers delivered a 31% account growth quarter the market didn't care about. We break down what each print actually means for the fintech landscape heading into the rest of 2026.

On today's episode, we break down three stories that flew under the radar on a quiet Monday — but probably shouldn't have. Coinbase just launched crypto-backed loans in the UK, and it's starting to look a lot like a bank. Revolut's CEO told the world to wait until 2028 for an IPO — and explained exactly why that's the right call. And we put Plata on the map: the Mexican neobank that just hit a $5 billion valuation in three years flat. Big earnings week coming next week — this is your warm-up.

Big bank earnings week just wrapped and the regionals closed it out strong. We break down Truist's clean EPS beat and $1.8B capital return, what Fifth Third's monster Q1 means for the Comerica integration thesis, and why Ally's 90% earnings jump might be the most underrated story of the week. Numbers, context, zero fluff.

Big bank earnings season just got interesting. Schwab posted its best quarter ever and is about to undercut Coinbase on crypto pricing. U.S. Bank linked up with Amazon to go after the SMB market every fintech startup is obsessed with. And Citizens dropped a 47% EPS jump while deploying AI to slash $100M in costs. We're breaking down what it all means for fintech — and who should actually be worried.

Big bank earnings season just delivered something nobody expected: Bank of America's best EPS in nearly two decades, a certified record quarter from Morgan Stanley, and a quiet infrastructure play from PNC that every fintech investor should understand. We break down what the Iran war, AI anxiety, and a $40 billion Wall Street trading haul mean for your fintech portfolio — and why yesterday's run-up in HOOD, COIN, CHYM, and SOFI was more signal than noise.

Yesterday's big bank earnings weren't just a quarterly scorecard — they were a thesis statement about the future of money. We break down why JPMorgan's massive beat still came with a warning label, how Jane Fraser quietly pulled off one of the best quarters in Citi's history, and what Wells Fargo's miss actually tells us about the state of the deposit war. If you want to know what big bank earnings mean for your fintech portfolio, this is the episode.

Goldman Sachs posted the second-best quarter in its 157-year history on Monday — and the stock still dropped. Wise is abandoning the London Stock Exchange for a Nasdaq debut on May 11. And OpenAI acqui-hired the founders of an AI personal CFO startup backed by Ribbit Capital and General Catalyst, shutting it down to build something bigger. We're back from spring break and the market did not take the week off.

Important Update: I’ll be taking some time with my family for spring break and won’t be sharing an episode for the rest of the week. We’ll continue the daily podcast on Tuesday, April 14th. Today's episode is a triple header that would make your econ professor's head spin. SoFi just launched a 24/7 business banking platform that blends fiat and crypto under one nationally chartered roof — with Galaxy, Wintermute, and Mastercard already signed on. Meanwhile, the OCC handed Coinbase a conditional trust bank charter, making it the latest in an 83-day wave of crypto firms getting federal credentials. And in the most satisfying plot twist of the quarter, US Bank and Mastercard just took Amazon's entire small business card portfolio straight from Amex. We break down what it all means, why it matters, and who's actually winning the race to own business banking.

TikTok just applied for two fintech licenses in Brazil — and Nubank's stock moved 6% the same day. We break down what ByteDance is really building and why it's a bigger threat than it looks. Then, U.S. Bank quietly picked one of the most important construction lending partners in the industry — and no, it's not the Bilt you know. We close out April Fools' Day with Liquity's fake Circle acquisition tweet that pumped a token 5% and landed the project in a market manipulation conversation. Big day for fintech, weird day for crypto.

Robinhood Banking just hit $1.5 billion in deposits — five months after launch — while somehow surviving an Elon Musk-induced IPO scare in the same afternoon. Monzo quietly killed its US operation today, serving as a brutal reminder that the American banking market eats neobanks for breakfast. And Public just became the first brokerage to let retail investors deploy AI agents that actually execute trades. Three stories, one very loud Tuesday in fintech.

The Senate just locked in an April markup for the CLARITY Act — and the central fight is whether stablecoins can pay you just for holding them. That single question puts $1.35 billion of Coinbase's annual revenue on the line. We break down the bill, Ramp's perfectly-timed public beta launch, and why Plaid crossing $500M in revenue with zero IPO urgency might be the most confident move in fintech right now.

The FTC just handed PayPal's brand new CEO a regulatory grenade on his first week on the job — and Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe aren't sleeping easy either. Then we get into Public's move to put crypto inside your IRA and what it means for every other brokerage sitting on their hands. And finally: the NYSE's parent company just dropped another $600M into a blockchain prediction market, because apparently "vibes" is now a financial asset class. All signal, no noise.

Today we're breaking down three stories that all point in the same direction: crypto infrastructure is going fully mainstream, and the fintech companies building the rails are getting paid. Coinbase and Better just launched the first Fannie Mae-approved crypto-collateralized mortgage. BitGo posted 424% revenue growth and quietly became the only federally chartered public digital asset company. And SoFi locked in $3.6 billion in new capital-light loan agreements before lunch. Grab your AirPods — this one moves fast.

Klarna invites in activist giant Elliott and signals a new era of discipline, Paychex drops a quiet earnings beat that says more about the economy than headlines admit, and MrBeast steps into fintech—sparking a real debate about teens, money, and regulation. Three stories, one big question: who actually shapes the future of money?

Crypto stocks just got a reality check. Coinbase (COIN) slides as DC starts circling stablecoin yields, Circle (CRCL) gets absolutely smoked on regulatory fears, and Robinhood (HOOD) does the opposite—dropping a $1.5B buyback like it’s been here before.In today’s episode, we break down why stablecoins are suddenly the center of the fintech universe, how Washington could reshape crypto business models overnight, and why Robinhood is quietly evolving from trading app to capital allocator.

HSBC is in cost-cutting mode. Palantir is poking around mortgages like “we can fix this.” And Kalshi just raised $1B to let you trade…reality.This episode is all about how companies that aren’t fintech are becoming fintech anyway—and what that says about where money, markets, and software are headed.

Robinhood launches social trading features, Visa accelerates its stablecoin strategy through new crypto hiring, and Ramp pushes AI adoption as a core workplace expectation.We break down what happened, why it matters, and how these shifts are reshaping the future of money, work, and financial platforms.

Today’s Fintech Stacks dives into one of the most confusing market reactions you’ll see this year—a crypto company misses earnings, gets hit with a lawsuit, and the stock still surges. We break down what’s really driving that move and why fundamentals don’t always matter in crypto.Then we shift to UP Fintech (TIGR), which is delivering real growth—but facing the new reality of rising costs in a post-zero-rate world. Finally, we look at Greenlight’s big win in financial education and why fintech companies targeting kids might have the strongest long-term moat of all.

SoFi just took the crown for investor satisfaction, but it’s not by chasing traders—it’s by winning the long game. Meanwhile, dLocal keeps quietly dominating emerging markets, and Ripple is heading to Brazil… where Pix already runs the show.

SoFi gets hit with a Muddy Waters short report—and the stock doesn’t break. PayPal pushes PYUSD into 70 markets to revive its growth story. And Mastercard quietly drops $1.8B on stablecoin infrastructure. We break down what actually matters (and what doesn’t).

Crypto stocks are making a comeback—and it’s not just hype this time. BitMine is loading up on Ethereum while quietly placing bets on AI and the creator economy, Circle is up 150% as stablecoins turn into a cash-flow machine, and Bakkt is attempting a full-on comeback with a new strategy. Three companies, three very different ways to play the future of money. Let’s break down who’s actually building—and who’s still figuring it out.

PayPal gets sued. Ramp goes global. Cash App turns prediction markets into a one-tap experience. We break down the latest fintech drama and what it means for the future of payments, corporate cards, and speculation.

Today on Fintech Stacks, three stories shaping the future of money.Plaid teams up with Perplexity in a partnership that could turn AI into the new interface for personal finance. PayPay makes its long-awaited public debut and pops on day one, giving the fintech IPO market a much-needed win. And Wealthfront drops after missing EPS, reminding everyone that public fintech companies are now judged on profits, not just growth.Three stories. Fifteen minutes. Everything you need to know in fintech today.

This episode breaks down three major shifts shaping the industry. Revolut finally secures a full UK banking license, proving that some of the biggest fintech players are now becoming the banks they once tried to disrupt. BitGo (BTGO) invests in stablecoin infrastructure through Ubyx, highlighting how institutional crypto is increasingly about plumbing rather than speculation. And Mastercard (MA) unveils a large network of banking, fintech, and crypto partners working to move more payments on-chain.If the last decade of fintech was about disruption, the next one may be about integration.

Fintech and traditional banking are colliding. In today’s episode: Upstart applies for a national bank charter, Wells Fargo files a trademark hinting at a stablecoin called WFUSD, and SoFi officially becomes one of the 50 largest banks in the U.S. by assets.

Today on Fintech Stacks, we break down three big stories shaping the public fintech markets. First, we look at BitMine (BMNR) and why the company is suddenly everywhere on retail investor feeds as it builds one of the largest Ethereum treasuries in the world. Then we check in on Circle (CRCL)—a stock that’s been volatile since its IPO but a company that continues to execute as stablecoins grow into real financial infrastructure. And finally, we dive into eToro, where trading volume surged 81% as investors shift away from crypto and back into traditional markets. Three companies, three signals about where fintech and trading culture are heading next.

Better.com (BETR) is back with a bold claim that AI can approve a mortgage in just 47 seconds, Elon Musk’s long-teased X Money is starting to take shape as the platform moves closer to becoming a financial super app, and crypto infrastructure firm Zero Hash is applying for a national trust bank charter after its rumored acquisition by Mastercard fell apart—three moves that show how fintech players are racing to reinvent lending, payments, and crypto infrastructure all at once.

NuBank just pulled a SoFi-style marketing play by naming Inter Miami’s new stadium Nu Stadium, putting its brand front and center in the Messi media machine. Meanwhile, crypto infrastructure firm BitGo quietly revealed it’s the engine behind SoFiUSD, signaling that stablecoins may be moving closer to mainstream banking rails. And across the Atlantic, European fintech giant Revolut is making another run at the U.S. market with a new banking charter application.Three stories. One stack. The global fintech wars are heating up.

Robinhood launched a $695 Platinum credit card and a suite of new wealth tools. Kraken became the first crypto firm to access the Federal Reserve’s payments system. And Webull posted record results in its first year as a public company.Today’s Fintech Stacks breaks down why Robinhood is building a full financial ecosystem, what Kraken’s Fed access means for crypto infrastructure, and why Webull’s global growth is turning heads.

Today on Fintech Stacks: SoFi’s CEO buys shares and SoFi + Mastercard push SoFiUSD into settlement rails. Affirm and Stripe roll out Shared Payment Tokens so AI agents can check out without exposing credentials. And LendingTree rallies hard despite a brutal EPS miss—because guidance and operating metrics did the talking.

Dave announces a buyback and suddenly looks less like a cash advance app and more like a capital allocator. Riot posts record revenue and leans deeper into its energy infrastructure strategy. StoneCo trims distractions and doubles down on core fintech profitability.Today we break down what these earnings really signal: fintech’s shift from hype to discipline.

SoFi enables Solana inside a regulated bank app. Mastercard teams up with MetaMask to bring self-custody wallets to the swipe economy. And Brinks drops $6.6B on ATM infrastructure like cash never left.Today we break down who really owns the rails — on-chain, in-app, and in armored trucks.

Block (XYZ) just cut nearly 4,000 employees and says it’s not about weakness — it’s about becoming AI-native. Plaid lands an $8B valuation years after its $5.3B Visa deal was blocked by regulators. And Shift4 (FOUR) beats earnings… then drops 15% anyway.Today we break down what these moves really signal about fintech’s next chapter: smaller teams, repriced private markets, and why guidance matters more than EPS.If you care about where money, tech, and markets are headed — this one’s a must-listen.

Circle jumps 30% as stablecoins shift from crypto hype to real financial infrastructure. Nu prints another profitable quarter and proves digital banking at scale actually works. Chime beats on revenue and narrows losses, signaling its path toward IPO maturity. We break down what happened, why it matters, and what it says about the next phase of fintech.

Today on Fintech Stacks:Payoneer ($PAYO) files for a U.S. national trust bank charter as the OCC suddenly looks very open for fintech business. What changed — and why is everyone rushing the door?Coinbase ($COIN) launches U.S. stock trading for everyone and partners with Yahoo Finance, putting a “Trade” button right next to where millions of investors already research stocks. This is distribution chess, not checkers.And Meta ($META) is reportedly planning a stablecoin comeback. Yes, that Meta. Yes, again. Is this Libra 2.0 — or something way smarter?The regulated crypto era might actually be here.