Hello Fintech Friends,
Welcome to the new readers who’ve joined us since last week. You’re joining 172,000+ other subscribers who love fintech. Today's newsletter is brought to you by Lithic.
Fintech capital markets are having another big week: Ramp is raising new funds at a $40 billion valuation, Kraken’s parent company acquired Southeast Asian stablecoin provider Reap for $600 million, and Peter Thiel-backed crypto exchange Bullish entered an agreement to buy transfer agent Equinity for $4.2 billion. Fintech bankers are not getting any sleep this year. More analysis coming in our weekend editions.
Elsewhere, new research from the Wall Street Journal dug into the distribution of winners and losers on prediction-making platform Polymarket, and the results were… well, not encouraging. 0.1% of accounts on Polymarket make 67% of the profits. 75% of the top 0.1% of accounts in trade frequency are profitable… But for the other 99.9%, the majority lose money.
On conventional sports betting apps, users are likely to lose to the house. On Kalshi and Polymarket, the house is replaced by insiders. Choose your adventure.
PSA: TWIF is looking for a highly motivated Account Executive to join our team in New York City! You’ll be a frontline ambassador for the brand, including; opening doors, pitching creative solutions, and building long-term partnerships with some of the most influential names in fintech.
Sound like you? Reply to this email and let me know.
Last but certainly not least, I sat down with Coinbase Chief Business Officer Shan Aggarwal to talk through the company’s earnings releae last night.
Want to learn more about how Coinbase is leveraging stablecoins to serve new customers? Come see Shan keynote Stablecon USA, September 9th to 11th. A few highlights here:
Please enjoy another week of fintech and banking news below.
Have feedback for us? Let us know. Find me at @nikmilanovic, @twifintech, and @ndm
SPONSORED
When Mercury's 3DS-authenticated transactions became a concentrated source of fraud risk, they needed a solution built into the authorization flow, not layered on top of it. By expanding their partnership with Lithic, Mercury gained programmable, real-time controls that cut total card fraud losses tied to 3DS transactions by 40%, without compromising the cardholder experience. See how they did it. Read the case study.
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Financial Services & Banking
Product Launches
Lloyds Banking Group launched "Envoy," a new internal AI agent platform designed to streamline employee workflows and automate complex administrative tasks across the bank.
FIS teamed with Anthropic to develop a specialized AI agent focused on detecting and preventing financial crimes through advanced pattern recognition and real-time analysis.
Morgan Stanley piloted a low-fee crypto trading service on its E*TRADE platform, signaling a major move toward integrating digital asset brokerage for retail investors.
Other News
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority opened a probe into Mastercard, Visa, and PayPal over concerns that their market dominance and fee structures may involve anti-competitive practices.
Morgan Stanley is positioning itself as the primary reserve manager for the stablecoin industry, seeking to hold the cash and Treasury assets that back major digital currencies.
Fintech
Product Launches
Kraken and MoneyGram partnered to enable customers to seamlessly convert digital assets into cash at thousands of physical locations worldwide.
Solana Foundation launched "Pay.sh" in collaboration with Google Cloud, providing developers with a streamlined infrastructure for integrating high-speed blockchain payments.
Anthropic introduced specialized "Finance Agents" powered by Claude, designed to automate complex financial analysis and reporting for enterprise institutions.
Zip deployed new AI agents for accounting, helping global corporations close their books with increased speed and accuracy through automated reconciliation.
Moonpay partnered with Mastercard to launch a virtual debit card that lets users and AI agents spend stablecoins from their onchain balances at any online merchant that accepts Mastercard.
Wise introduced a first-of-its-kind multi-currency interest feature in Canada, allowing customers to earn returns on their balances across multiple global currencies simultaneously.
Wirex launched a new consumer finance app called Wirex One, focusing on stablecoin integration to simplify digital asset management and everyday spending.
Allica Bank implemented agentic AI to deliver fully automated loan decisions in minutes, drastically reducing wait times for small and medium-sized enterprises.
IRA Financial expanded investment access for its self-directed retirement clients, integrating traditional assets alongside alternative holdings within its digital platform.
SPONSORED
When Mercury's 3DS-authenticated transactions became a concentrated source of fraud risk, they needed a solution built into the authorization flow, not layered on top of it. By expanding their partnership with Lithic, Mercury gained programmable, real-time controls that cut total card fraud losses tied to 3DS transactions by 40%, without compromising the cardholder experience. See how they did it. Read the case study.
Want to sponsor a newsletter? See our sponsorship information here.
Job of the Week
Other News
Credit Karma launched a new platform specifically designed for "credit invisibles," helping millions of Americans with no credit history build their financial profiles through alternative data.
The SBA overhauled its small-dollar lending segment by integrating AI tools that significantly accelerated the approval process and expanded access for minority-owned businesses.
Revolut surpassed the 70 million customer milestone globally, cementing its position as a dominant force in the digital banking sector after a year of rapid international growth.
Monzo prepared for its official expansion into Spain, marking a key step in the British neobank's strategy to capture the broader European market.
Partnership Corner
Western Union partnered with Fireblocks to launch its proprietary USDPT stablecoin, utilizing the platform's infrastructure to modernize cross-border settlements beginning in the Philippines and Bolivia.
The Bad News
Parker, the Y-Combinator fintech that provider ecommerce merchants with credit cards, abruptly ceased operations, after raising $200M+.
Coinbase announced that it would eliminate approximately 700 jobs, representing 14% of its global workforce, as part of an AI-driven restructuring plan to boost efficiency.
World Liberty Financial sued crypto billionaire Justin Sun for defamation, alleging he launched a smear campaign against the company after his assets were frozen for purportedly violating sales terms.
