Hello Fintech Friends,

Welcome to the 2,714 new readers who’ve joined us since a little before the holidays. You’re joining a family of 231,000+ other subscribers ready to start fintech's biggest year ever.

One Big Thought

I am going to start the year with a prediction – one prediction only – I think this is going to be fintech's biggest year on-record.

2021 was the mania: fintechs were over-funded, it was an era of high growth high expectations, followed by a 2-year trough in 2022 and 2023. Many companies shut down (RIP Fast) and downsized. 2024 could be categorized as a rebuilding year across many sectors, which led to fintech's big comeback year in 2025. And what a comeback it was. Figure, Circle, Navan, and Klarna went public. Neobanks like Monzo raised $190 million while Revolut hit a $75 billion valuation. Stripe and Adyen both passed $1 trillion in annual processing volume.

What will 2026 hold? Well, if you look at the list of 30 most in-demand equities on secondaries markets today, fintechs make up 27% of the list:

I think we are very likely to see more fintech IPOs, more large mergers, a bank buying a fintech, a fintech buying a bank, some eye-popping fundraises, and some even more eye-popping revenue numbers this year. Moreover, fintech is increasingly blurring the lines with crypto and defi (the 'fintech mullet') as consumer financial service providers migrate to stablecoins in order to build more flexible, faster back-ends.

We are also likely to see some high-profile battles. Will prediction markets get classified as betting platforms? How will regulatory agencies interpret the GENIUS Act, and how will that impact banks and fintechs?

Whatever the answer, it is a guarantee that 2026 will not be boring. It will be one battle after another.

...speaking of stablecoins, we're hiring hiring hiring!

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Junior Content Manager – Stablecoin Conferences & Fintech Podcasts Junior Content Manager Company: Stablecon Location: New York (We’re a remote-first organization that meets weekly in NYC) Employment Type: Full-Time Department: Operations & Content Compensation: $75k base salary, + bon…

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We have a huge year ahead for stablecoins. (Just look at the news below...)

And speaking of stablecoins... our ticket prices for Stablecon USA go up $400 at midnight! Grab one here while you can.

I was surprised to find a quick note about TWIF from a reader over the holidays – thank you to the LendAPI team for the kind words 🙏

Now, please enjoy another week of fintech and banking news below.

Have feedback for us? Let us know. Find me at @nikmilanovic, @twifintech, and @ndm

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Financial Services & Banking

JP Morgan reached a deal to take over the Apple credit card program from Goldman Sachs. Goldman will offload more than $1 billion of consumer loans from its books at a discount, as it continues to pull back from its consumer banking experiment.

The European Central Bank outlined the functional details of the digital euro to provide citizens with a secure, electronic form of cash for everyday transactions.

MSCI retreated from its initial plan to exclude crypto-linked companies from its main indexes while signaling a broader review of its digital asset methodology.

The FDIC signaled regulatory support that cleared a path for the scaling of tokenized deposits within the traditional banking system.

Lloyds Banking Group decided to shut down its invoice financing business for small- and medium-sized enterprises as part of a broader strategic shift.

Citigroup agreed to sell its remaining Russian operations at a $1.2 billion loss to complete its exit from the country.

OECD activated its Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework across 48 countries to standardize the international exchange of information for tax purposes.

Saudi Arabia opened its capital markets to all categories of foreign investors to attract more international liquidity and diversify its economy.

HSBC appointed Pam Kaur as its first female finance chief in the bank's 159-year history.

People First Bank began the rollout of new "Smart ATMs" to provide customers with enhanced self-service banking capabilities and improved transaction technology.

Visa crypto card spending surges 525% in 2025, jumping from $14.6M to $91.3M in net spend

Quote of the Week

“As the digital financial paradigm is being reshaped, we need to go beyond simply remaining a participant operating within a given framework.” - Hana Financial Group bets on stablecoins

Fintech

Product Launches

Parcl and Polymarket launched a collaboration to introduce real estate prediction markets, allowing users to speculate on residential property price movements.

Tether and Rumble launched a self-custodial crypto wallet to provide content creators and users with integrated digital payment options.

Pluto introduced an AI-powered lending platform designed to enhance liquidity for investors within the private markets.

AI finance agent developer Tabs launched Revenue Close Management, enabling automated revenue journal entries based on real billing data for businesses.

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Upcoming Events

Roadshow to Stablecon: Stablecoin Day LATAM @ Mexico Fintech Week 2026 · Luma

Calling stablecoin founders, banks, investors, operators, and the curious! Join Stablecon, Rain & Velafi for a “can’t miss” invite-only side event bringing…

This Week in Fintech

Job of the Week

Canadian neobank Venn is hiring across the board for a range of roles:

• Head of Engineering
• Senior Mobile Engineer (React Native)
• Staff Front End Engineer
• Senior Backend Engineer
• Senior Product Manager

Other News

PwC is deepening its commitment to the digital asset sector in response to shifting U.S. regulations and the increasing mainstream adoption of stablecoins.

Dutch neobank Bunq filed for a banking license in the United States to expand its international presence and offer digital banking services to American consumers.

Total stablecoing yield paid out in 2025 exceeded $800 million, up 143% from the $342M distributed in 2024.

Partnership Corner

Digital Asset and Kinexys (by JP Morgan) announced their intention to bring the USD JPM Coin natively to the Canton Network to enhance institutional interoperability.

Apex Group and Allfunds partnered to expand offshore investment access for global investors through a new strategic distribution agreement.

The Bad News

JPMorgan froze the bank accounts of two stablecoin startups, BlindPay and Kontigo, following concerns regarding their exposure to sanctioned jurisdictions like Venezuela. Kontigo had previously detected an unauthorized access that affected funds of users.

Messaging app Telegram's bonds in Russia worth half a billion dollars were also recently frozen under western sanctions.