Hello Fintech Friends,

Welcome to the 3,144 new readers who’ve joined us since last week. You’re joining 184,000+ other subscribers. Today's newsletter is brought to you by NewlineTM by Fifth Third.

Wow.

We're still buzzing from yesterday's Stablecon conference.

If you didn't make, we've got good news! We'll be back from September 9th to 11th, 2026. Join the community at stablecon.com

And if you did join us, relive the day with our recap video:

Thank you again to our great partners: Fireblocks, Mesh, Zero Hash, Mastercard, Ripple, Bridge, Turnkey, Rain, Dfns, M0, Limited, Global Dollar Network, Bvnk, Aptos, Caliza, and Stablecoin Standard.

Speaking of stablecoins... the US is (finally!) getting rid of the penny.

Transactions will now be rounded to the nearest 5 cents. Will we be able to get rid of the nickel next?

And what will happen to all those pennies when the US stops making them?

So what happens to America’s 114 billion pennies once the US stops making them? | CNN Business

The American penny isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

CNNChris Isidore

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

Major U.S. banks (JPMorgan, BofA, Citi, Wells Fargo) are exploring a jointly-issued stablecoin to compete with crypto and tech firms. Progress depends on U.S. regulatory clarity. JPMorgan is skeptical about forecasts that stablecoins will hit $1T, citing U.S. regulatory uncertainty as a major obstacle.

The UK’s FCA is drafting rules requiring stablecoin issuers to maintain token value and disclose reserves, aiming for financial stability and consumer protection, while the CFPB plans to revoke the 1033 rule that enabled consumers to share financial data, sparking concern among fintech and data ownership advocates.

TD Bank will lay off ~2,000 employees as part of a restructuring effort, targeting $650M in annual savings after a costly legal settlement.

💬 Quote of the Week

💻 Fintech

🚀 Product Launches

Kraken will offer over 50 tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs—including Apple, Tesla, and Nvidia—to international users via the Solana blockchain. These "xStocks" will be backed 1:1 by real shares and managed by Backed Finance, providing 24/7 trading access outside the U.S.

Google is rolling out an "agentic shopping" feature that lets users set a desired price for a product. Once the price is met, an AI agent will automatically complete the purchase on the user's behalf.

OpenPayd has unveiled a platform enabling businesses to integrate stablecoin capabilities swiftly.

London-based fintech Merge has activated its Electronic Money Institution (EMI) and Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) licenses to expand its stablecoin payment services across Europe.

Crypto exchange Bitget launched BGUSD, a stablecoin offering users passive income opportunities, aiming to improve capital efficiency for global users.

UK-based Griffin* is building an "agentic bank" by opening access to its Model Context Protocol (MCP) server, allowing AI agents to perform tasks autonomously on behalf of customers.

Block is introducing Bitcoin payment acceptance via the Lightning Network on its Square platform, enabling merchants to process crypto transactions directly through their existing hardware.

ACI Worldwide rolled out ACI Connetic, a unified, cloud-native platform that consolidates account-to-account (A2A) and card payments with AI-driven fraud prevention tools.

Curve launched its digital wallet on iOS, offering features like real-time spending insights, post-transaction payment source switching, split payments, and rewards stacking.

Shopify now accepts tap-to-pay:

Are you ready to grow your fintech with scalable, API-enabled payments? Backed by a leading financial institution, NewlineTM by Fifth Third empowers enterprise fintechs to effortlessly launch and scale payment, card and deposit products directly with Fifth Third Bank.

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This Week in Fintech

🤝 Partnership Corner

Pagaya is issuing $300 million in bonds backed by buy now, pay later loans from Klarna. Using AI to underwrite "second look" loans for borrowers with lower credit scores, Pagaya aims to expand access to credit and strengthen Klarna's position in the BNPL market.

Worldpay teamed up with BVNK to offer stablecoin payouts to clients in over 180 markets.

👎 The Bad News

Hasan Sukkar, founder of accounting AI startup 11x, stepped down as CEO, transitioning to a non-executive chairman role. CTO Prabhav Jain has been appointed as the new CEO. The leadership change follows reports of product issues and customer retention challenges, despite the company raising over $70 million in funding.