👋 Welcome to the new readers who’ve joined us since last week. You’re joining 173,000+ other subscribers who love fintech.
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Hello fintech friends,
It feels crazy, but I sent the first TWIF newsletter 7 years ago this month…
It’s incredible to see how far this community has come — and how far fintech has come — in that time. Over those years, we’ve signed up more than 300,000 readers as passionate about reinventing financial services as us.
I owe too much to too many great people in the fintech community who’ve helped us along the way 🙏 Thank you.
Sharing a screenshot below of the OG “week in fintech” newsletter from Sep 6th 2019.
With our new partners at Plaid, we’re excited to take the next step into live news reporting, richer video journalism, and shaping the fintech narrative as it develops.
🎡 This week, we also held our second Stablecon USA.
I’m blown away by the creativity, diversity, and growth of the stablecoin ecosystem. There is so much more than just stablecoins that these companies are building. Everything from faster payments to tokenized equities to agentic commerce is possible thanks to stablecoins.
Next up: Lisbon! Stablecon EMEA will be bringing 1,000+ payments leaders back to Europe in sunny Lisbon on April 14th and 15th, 2027.
If you missed it, here are some of the key announcements from Stablecoin Week:
Moneygram announced that they are launching their first-ever card, a stablecoin-backed Visa card built on ubiquitous card and payments infrastructure provider Rain.
BVNK and Marqeta – BVNK and Marqeta partner to power stablecoin-card infrastructure
TCS Blockchain – TCS Blockchain Now Truckin’ on Kraken; $TCS Token Lists for Trading
I would be remiss not to acknowledge the terrible loss of life 25 years ago today on September 11th, 2001.
9/11 fundamentally reshaped our world and we owe a debt to those who’ve worked tirelessly to keep us safe since. - Nik
The first TWIF — at the time an internal team newsletter
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The Rundown
🏦 Financial Services & Banking
Mastercard expanded its Agent Suite tools and introduced Mastercard Agent Connect and introduced Wallet Pay to streamline checkout integration and accelerate digital wallet adoption among merchants globally.
SIX and TWINT joined a joint Swiss banking initiative aimed at piloting a unified, Swiss-franc-backed stablecoin to modernize regional payments.
U.S. Bank began testing a custom-built, deposit-backed stablecoin designed to speed up commercial settlements.
The World Bank announced a new financial initiative aimed at expanding digital payment infrastructure in emerging markets.
🚀 Product Launches
Plaid announced new platform enhancements to streamline financial data connectivity and developer integration tools.
OpenAI launched ChatGPT for Financial Services, integrating live market research, citation tools, and automated presentation creation into a single enterprise platform.
Nubank expanded into the U.S. market by introducing high-yield savings accounts, credit cards, and cross-border remittance services.
PayPal launched developer tools enabling builders to issue customized, app-specific stablecoins backed by PYUSD.
Valinor Digital* introduced the tokenized VBDC fund to give investors diversified, daily-liquidity access to public BDCs.
Arva AI opened a dedicated AI research lab focused on developing high-accuracy banking workflor decisioning models.
Paystand unveiled its Agentic Finance Suite to automate complex B2B payment workflows, receivables, and treasury operations via AI.
Blockchain debuted on-chain perpetual futures contracts tied to major AI firms, including OpenAI and Anthropic.
💸 Other News
PayPal paused the process of selling off its venture capital portfolio, holding on to its startup investments amid shifting market conditions.
Block applied to the OCC to establish an uninsured national trust bank designed to provide custody and fiduciary services for digital assets.
Chime agreed to acquire Stride Bank for $590 million in cash to vertically integrate its digital banking operations under a national bank charter.
Rain expanded its payout technology to reach more than 80 countries in 50 currencies, connecting stablecoin balances directly to local banking rails.
The National Payments Corporation of India is preparing a national framework to introduce AI-driven agentic payments on UPI.
OVE expanded its biometric-to-payment technology ecosystem while co-leading community initiatives for LGBTQ+ founders in Los Angeles.
🤝 Partnership Corner
Coinbase partnered with Moov to bring stablecoin payments, custody, and real-time settlement to over 1,000 community banks and credit unions.
Castellum integrated its Arbiter AI agents natively into LexisNexis Bridger Insight XG to automate AML and sanctions alert resolutions.
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We’ll see you next week, we love you. - Nik
