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It's breathtaking how much happens in just a week of fintech and stablecoins.

But we also had a great debate in our TWIF WhatsApp Community over the weekend about agentic payments and commerce.

A common question was: What will payment agents actually be used for?

A few of my very rough thoughts:

1. One of the most intuitive answers is that SaaS with agents as a core user will be able to support usage-based billing and metering with micropayments.
2. Right now there's a lot of decision architecture in billing and AP/AR that's designed around human-in-the-loop payments, which can change for real-time cashflows.
3. Online digital media is another area with a clearly broken commercial product right now. Users either: (1) pay more than they want for many subscriptions they only use some of the time or (2) don't pay, and navigate through significant ad-load on free news sites that make it difficult to absorb content.
4. Commercial payments use cases are both more complex and more repeatable. They also generate more 'data exhaust' in the form of invoice memos and transaction tagging. I think this means that commercial agentic payments are likely to take off well before consumer.
5. KYA (know your agent) and digital ID will become much more important. there will need to be a taxonomy of transaction types.
   1. What level of idenfication and human consent is required for a $10 transaction?
   2. For $10,000?
   3. For a mortgage?
   4. For medical records?
6. Would you let an agent know your financial info and payment preferences? People have a stated preference for privacy, but it feels like we've seen that their revealed preference is for convenience (eg: GDPR banners).
7. Agent-authenticated payments will almost certainly lead to some lawsuits when action deviates from (human) intent. Bespoke pay-AI insurance is a very real product need.

I cannot give anyone definitive answers on what the first killer use-cases will be for agentic payments. If I could, I would be building those products. But even small user experience improvements can become pretty massive when magnified over many interactions.

Think of e-commerce as an illustrative example: In the 1990s, someone in the US could have easily driven to the mall to buy a new TV and pick up their groceries. Online purchasing and delivery was not a 'burning need' that most consumers felt. But with the advent of Amazon and Shopify, the increased convenience drove a significant shift in user preferences over time. Saving 30-45 minutes on a shopping trip, magnified over a large enough set of users and enough repetitions, creates real economic benefit.

Even though we haven't yet identified 'burning needs' for agentic payments, I have a feeling that they will eventually prove to be significant drivers of efficiency and value – even if they only seem like small improvements to begin with.

What am I missing? Let me know!

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This Week in FintechSabrina Baxter

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

Product Launches

Fidelity entered the stablecoin market by launching the Fidelity Digital Dollar (FIDD), a US dollar-backed token designed for both institutional and retail investors to provide blockchain-based stability.

Visa partnered with US financial institutions to allow cardholders to deposit their credit card rewards directly into "Trump Accounts," a new class of federal savings accounts for children.

Mastercard unveiled its new "Agent Suite," a platform that allows banks and merchants to build and deploy specialized AI agents to assist with tasks like product discovery and personalized shopping.

ICE (Intercontinental Exchange) launched a "Reddit Signals and Sentiment" tool that uses AI to analyze millions of Reddit conversations, providing institutional investors with real-time market signals based on retail chatter.

Other News

Derivatives-based ETFs have become Wall Street’s fastest-growing segment, as investors increasingly flock to complex strategies like "buffered" and "defined outcome" funds to manage volatility.

The SEC clarified its regulatory framework regarding tokenized securities, providing market participants with new guidance on how existing federal securities laws apply to blockchain-based assets.

The Wall Street Journal reported that the global economy has become dangerously reliant on government debt, with rising deficits creating a precarious cycle that threatens long-term financial stability.

Quote of the Week

Stablecoins are an “always-on global alternative payment method” that can be added to a PSP’s checkout stack with one integration, unlocking many markets at once. – João Del Valle, CEO of EBANX

Fintech

Product Launches

Wealth.com launched a proprietary tax planning platform integrated into its estate planning ecosystem, enabling advisors to visualize tax liabilities and optimize wealth transfer strategies.

Papaya Global introduced a "Global Workforce Wallet" powered by Fireblocks, allowing multinational companies to store and move funds instantly to pay employees in local currencies.

N26 released a new debit card and app specifically for children, allowing parents in certain European markets to manage their kids' spending and teach financial literacy.

ThriveCart unveiled "ThrivePay Installments," a card-linked alternative to traditional Buy Now, Pay Later services that allows merchants to offer flexible payment plans directly through their own checkout.

OKX expanded its crypto debit card to the European market, signaling a shift toward stablecoins becoming a default medium for everyday consumer payments.

Tether announced the USAT stablecoin, a new token specifically designed for U.S. institutions and compliant with the regulatory framework established by the GENIUS Act.

Kraken rolled out yield-bearing "Veda Vaults" for DeFi Earn users in the US, EU, and Canada, providing a streamlined way to access decentralized finance rewards.

Apex Fintech Solutions debuted the "Apex AI Suite," a toolkit designed to help business leaders build financial infrastructure and accelerate product innovation through artificial intelligence.

Revolut Business entered the revenue operations space by launching a recurring billing tool, helping B2B companies automate invoicing and subscription management.

Kast presented a new stablecoin yield product, offering users a way to earn competitive returns on their digital asset holdings through a simplified interface.

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India’s Quiet Revolution: How Data Became the New Collateral

Why the next $960 billion credit market won’t be unlocked by banks, but by protocols Something remarkable happened in India last year that flew under most radars. The Account Aggregator system processed 600,000 consent requests daily by mid-2025, up from near-zero three years ago.

LinkedInAbhas Jha

Job of the Week

VP of Engineering - Stable Sea Careers

Lead the engineering team building the future of enterprise stablecoin infrastructure at Stable Sea.

Stable SeaStable Sea

Other News

Brazilian neobank Nubank was conditionally approved by the OCC for its US banking charter.

Affirm applied for a commercial banking charter, a move that would allow the "buy now, pay later" giant to accept insured deposits and reduce its reliance on third-party partner banks.

Revolut shifted its U.S. strategy by abandoning plans to acquire an existing bank, opting instead to apply for its own de novo banking license to gain more control over its American operations.

WisdomTree expanded its tokenization ecosystem to Solana, significantly broadening investor access to real-world assets (RWAs) through high-speed, low-cost on-chain infrastructure.

Revolut launched full banking operations in Mexico after receiving the necessary regulatory approvals, marking a major milestone in its expansion across Latin America.

Partnership Corner

Flutterwave partnered with Turnkey to power secure stablecoin wallets, leveraging non-custodial infrastructure to enhance the security and scalability of digital asset transactions across Africa.

DXC Technology collaborated with Ripple to integrate digital asset custody and the RLUSD stablecoin into its Banking Core Hub, allowing financial institutions to offer seamless crypto-native services.

The Bad News

In1Bank shut down its operations after the Australian digital lender failed to secure the necessary funding and scale to compete in a tightening financial market.

Guavapay entered compulsory liquidation following a court order, marking a sudden end for the London-based payments company amid regulatory and financial pressures.