Hello Fintech Friends,

Today’s newsletter is brought to you by our friends at Formance, an open-source, programmable core ledger that works with both fiat and digital assets.

📒 I'll be taking next weekend (Jan 2nd, 3rd, 4th) off from This Week in Fintech to do some newsletter housekeeping. Back on the 9th!

✈️ I'm very excited for our just-announced Africa Tour of the Stablecon Salon series in 2026. Africa is maybe the most important continent for stablecoins – 54+ regulatory regimes, obstacles to cross-border commerce, and an explosion in mobile banking. All the ripe conditions for wallets, payments, and banking built on stables.

📆 More African stablecoin events will be added to the calendar soon at luma.com/twif

Please find another week of fintech financing events below.

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

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The Clarity Act could end years of regulatory chaos for digital assets—defining what counts as a commodity, security, or stablecoin for the first time. For NBFIs touching digital assets, this isn't abstract policy, it's the difference between compliance risk and market opportunity. We break down what's proposed, what might actually pass, and how to prepare your ledger infrastructure before the rules land.

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News coverage written and provided by Rachel Chang.

Stat of the Week

"More than 85% of Americans want laws requiring businesses to accept cash, with 84% of those surveyed opposing a fully cashless society," – NCR Atleos Corporation

Financial Services & Banking

JPMorgan is starting to explore potential crypto trading services for its institutional clients.

Visa revealed that it is working with 100 partners on new agentic shopping initiatives.

ABN AMRO completed its first blockchain-based smart derivatives contract.

Fintech

Product Launches

Shift4 launched stablecoin settlement, so that merchants can get paid faster, move funds 24/7, and settle in USDC, USDT, EURC, or DAI across leading networks.

Other News

Mercury applied for a national bank charter with the OCC to transition from a software platform to a full-service bank, aiming to provide direct deposit insurance and expanded lending capabilities to startups.

Klarna plans to raise new funding directly in USDC stablecoins via Coinbase, marking a significant shift in how fintechs leverage digital assets for corporate treasury and capital raises.

Partnership Corner

MoneyHash and Mastercard expanded merchant access to their cloud platform across the Middle East and Africa, allowing businesses to optimize transaction routing through a single unified API.

Klarna partnered with Coinbase to add stablecoin to its funding mix, enabling the fintech to raise short-term capital from institutional investors using USDC.

The Bad News

It emerged that former Frank CEO Charlie Javice's lawyers billed $7.4 million in legal fees, which included expenses for a 147-member team, $25,800 in hotel upgrades, and $530 for gummy bears – JP Morgan is now attempting to claw the fees back.

The SEC charged crypto platforms and investment clubs over a $14 million social media scam that used fake AI-generated tips to lure investors into non-existent "Security Token Offerings."

Venture Financing

• Imprint raised $150 million in Series D, reaching unicorn status as it expands its co-branded credit card and embedded finance platform.
• Olea raised $30 million in Series A led by BBVA to scale its trade finance platform for firms that need supply chain financing.
• Sequence raised $20 million in Series A to expand its agentic AI platform for payroll, revenue, and finance automation.
• Kontigo raised $20 million in seed funding to accelerate development of its stablecoin-focused banking app for cross-border payments, serving Latinos across the US and Latin America.
• Finny raised $17 million in Series A to scale its AI-powered prospecting and marketing platform for financial advisors.
• Verisoul raised $8.8 million in Series A to expand its fraud detection platform to combat fake accounts and AI-driven fraud across fintech and digital services.
• Advance raised $7.3 million in seed funding to modernize how insurance premiums are collected, held, and moved with a banking infrastructure for insurers and MGAs.
• Chaince Digital, a fintech and digital asset holding company, raised $6.14 million to expand into AI and semiconductor capabilities.
• Soverli raised $2.6 million in pre-seed funding to build a sovereign smartphone OS layer enabling secure environments for finance, identity, and enterprise applications.
• Ciphero raised $2.5 million in pre-seed funding to build enterprise AI-native security tools designed to protect sensitive data and workflows in financial services and beyond.
• Givefront raised $2 million in seed funding to build a financial platform tailored to nonprofits and mission-driven organizations.

Debt Financing

• ANNA Money secured £10 million (~$13.5 million) in debt financing to support growth of its digital banking and financial services platform for UK small businesses

Venture Funds

• IIFL Fintech Fund acquired ₹21 crore (~$2.3 million) worth of secondary shares in regtech startup Leegality, signaling continued VC appetite for compliance and digital contracting infrastructure.

SPONSORED

Holding user balances or offering payouts? You're likely an NBFI, and that changes everything. From reserve requirements to real-time auditability, compliance now demands cross-functional alignment between finance, product, engineering, and legal. Learn how the right infrastructure turns regulatory obligations into competitive advantages, and why getting ahead of NBFI compliance isn't optional anymore.

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