The hottest Fintech Substack posts right now

And their main takeaways
Category
Top Business Topics

Mantic Monday: Groundhog Day

Astral Codex Ten ā€¢ 15623 implied HN points ā€¢ 03 Mar 26
šŸ•¹ Technology Fintech
  1. The Pentagonā€™s ā€œsupply chain riskā€ label briefly knocked Anthropicā€™s predicted value but markets quickly rebounded, implying legal challenges, big-cloud partnerships, and publicity make the company unlikely to be crippled.
  2. Republican efforts to tighten voting rules and a rumored executive order raise real disruption risks for the midterms, but courts and prediction markets expect limited mass disenfranchisement and still tilt toward Democratic gains in Congress.
  3. Prediction markets are shifting toward hedging and financial products, with crypto-based platforms like MNX targeting AI and real-world risk hedges, and markets are already being used to price geopolitical events like the Iran conflict.

Issue #150: X Money Gets a Launch Date, Revolut Finally Gets Its UK Banking Licence, And SumUp Eyes a European IPO

Fintech Radar ā€¢ 12 implied HN points ā€¢ 17 Mar 26
šŸ’° Finance Fintech
  1. X Money is launching soon with peer-to-peer transfers, a Visa debit card, and an aggressive ~6% yield, using Xā€™s massive user base to cheaply build a deposit business.
  2. Revolut has won a full UK banking licence, unlocking lending and FSCS deposit protection so it can finally monetise its 13 million UK customers beyond interchange and FX.
  3. SumUp is courting banks for a European IPO in London, Amsterdam, or Frankfurt, which suggests profitable payments infrastructure companies might lead a new fintech listing wave even as public markets stay cautious.

The Secret Behind Nubank and Mercado Libreā€™s Rise to Market Dominance

The Wolf of Harcourt Street ā€¢ 539 implied HN points ā€¢ 17 Oct 24
šŸ’¼ Business Fintech
  1. Nubank and Mercado Libre are successful because they used technological leapfrogging. This means they skipped older technology and went straight to using modern solutions, like mobile banking and digital payments.
  2. They took advantage of large numbers of people who had never used banking services before. By being mobile-friendly, they turned non-users into active customers quickly.
  3. Having low switching costs made it easy for users to adopt these new technologies. Since there were not many old systems to replace, people could easily try out and stick with these services.

@adlrocha - Money and collateral in an AI-first society

@adlrocha Weekly Newsletter ā€¢ 129 implied HN points ā€¢ 08 Mar 26
šŸ’° Finance Fintech
  1. Compute, energy, and AI tokens will become the new scarce commodities and collateral, so access to PFlops, MWh, and tokenised intelligence will be treated like money and hedged accordingly.
  2. Two parallel economies are likely to emerge: a fast, tokenised, agent-to-agent market running on stablecoins and tokenised assets, and a slower human-facing economy that uses fiat and stablecoins for everyday needs.
  3. The ultimate economic advantage will be inference efficiency ā€” getting the most useful intelligence per unit of energy ā€” so smaller, more efficient models and edge deployments will capture the most value.

1. Three Rules for AI in Finance

Arpitrage ā€¢ 2299 implied HN points ā€¢ 02 Feb 26
šŸ’° Finance Fintech
  1. AI creates simpler, lower-dimensional maps of a complicated world so people can act on it; judge models by whether they improve real decisions and the costā€“quality tradeoffs, not just narrow benchmarks.
  2. AI gains are capped by the slowest bottleneck in a process (Amdahlā€™s Law), so focus on speeding up the truly constraining steps ā€” often regulatory, organizational, or incentive-related rather than purely technical.
  3. Automation drives prices down for commodified tasks and raises the value of scarce complements like private information, relationships, and judgment, so follow price signals and elasticities to see what gets automated and what stays valuable.
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What It Means To Be A Bank Is Rapidly Changing

Fintech Business Weekly ā€¢ 304 implied HN points ā€¢ 01 Mar 26
šŸ’° Finance Fintech
  1. The definition of a bank is changing quickly as many fintechs, crypto firms, and nonbank companies apply for charters to offer digital-asset, stablecoin, and payment services.
  2. That rapid shift is drawing pushback and scrutiny from regulators, trade groups, and lawmakers who say some approvals lack transparency, may exceed legal intent, and risk conflicts or political influence.
  3. Despite the upheaval, FDIC data shows the banking system remains broadly healthy with strong net income, slightly higher net interest margins, shrinking unrealized securities losses, loan growth, and generally stable credit metrics.

3. The Cause of and Solution to all of Life's Problems

Arpitrage ā€¢ 548 implied HN points ā€¢ 23 Feb 26
šŸ’° Finance Fintech
  1. AI and richer data can meaningfully improve credit scoring and underwriting by uncovering low-risk borrowers traditional models miss and by using unstructured inputs like digital footprints and text.
  2. More powerful, complex models introduce new risks: they can worsen fairness across groups, be brittle to regime shifts, enable adversarial attacks or coordinated runs, and create competitive arms races and herding that amplify systemic risk.
  3. Managing these dangers requires verification and simpler hybrid or explainable rules, active monitoring (often with AI itself), and more documentation, validation, and regulatory effort because system-wide feedbacks and incentives will shift.

After Missed Payments, Evolve Creditors Look To Dump Distressed Debt

Fintech Business Weekly ā€¢ 438 implied HN points ā€¢ 22 Feb 26
šŸ’° Finance Fintech
  1. Evolve Bancorpā€™s holding company is in clear financial distress, has missed coupon payments, and creditors are trying to sell its notes at heavily discounted prices.
  2. Evolve Bank itself trimmed losses and still meets regulatory capital ratios, but itā€™s losing fintech partners and deposits have declined sharply, which heightens liquidity and reputational risk.
  3. Stripeā€™s Bridge got conditional approval for a national trust charter and is pushing stablecoins for faster cross-border payments while tightening which countries it serves to reduce compliance and sanctions risk.

Weekly Dose of Optimism #182

Not Boring by Packy McCormick ā€¢ 210 implied HN points ā€¢ 27 Feb 26
šŸ•¹ Technology Fintech
  1. Big advances in clean energy are moving from lab to grid. Gigawattā€‘hour ironā€‘air batteries are being deployed for multiā€‘day storage and startups are pursuing stellarator fusion plants, both pointing to more reliable, decarbonized power and new manufacturing jobs.
  2. Medical research is producing transformative, nonā€‘traditional therapies. Phaseā€‘3 psilocybin trials show strong results for treatmentā€‘resistant depression and other studies suggest benefits for chronic conditions like postā€‘treatment Lyme, while vitamin B2/B3 genomics identified a simple, lifeā€‘saving therapy for NAXD in animal models.
  3. The internet economy is accelerating and reshaping commerce and payments. Fast growth in new businesses, app activity, and stablecoin payment volume, plus concepts like agentic commerce, suggest rising momentum ā€” but widespread progress will depend on regulatory and permissioning systems.

2. When Your AI is Lying To You

Arpitrage ā€¢ 470 implied HN points ā€¢ 09 Feb 26
šŸ’° Finance Fintech
  1. Finance work is mostly about processing large volumes of documents, and building pipelines to extract, index, and semantically understand those texts lets teams scale research, compliance, and automated actions. You still need provenance, governance, and clear workflows so those outputs are trustworthy.
  2. AI abilities are uneven: it can boost accuracy and productivity on tasks inside its capability frontier but can hurt performance outside that frontier, so humans need to stay engaged with clear roles (e.g., dividing work or iterating together). This also means guarding against cognitive complacency as tools get easier to use.
  3. Hallucinations are a core risk with LLMs, and the practical fix today is grounding models with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) that pulls answers from a curated corpus. RAG reduces made-up claims but doesn't eliminate errors, so high-stakes outputs still require human verification.

What to Watch in 2026

The Generalist ā€¢ 1621 implied HN points ā€¢ 09 Jan 26
šŸ•¹ Technology Fintech
  1. AI in 2026 is driven by big hardware and platform moves ā€” massive chip deals, new architectures, novel training research, and giant funding rounds ā€” but high valuations and geopolitical chip controls raise real bubble and supply risks.
  2. Robotics and automation are finally moving into the physical world; robots are learning from humans and autonomous machines are starting to handle tasks like construction and data-center buildouts.
  3. Watch non-obvious opportunities: emerging-market fintech (especially in Africa and Latin America), stealth voice and search startups, and big plays in areas like nuclear energy and geopolitical tech competition ā€” these could be the next big winners.

Top Links 997 AI in the bond market. How the UK ended coal. Pasolini on Gramsci and Trotsky on Europe.

Chartbook ā€¢ 672 implied HN points ā€¢ 29 Jan 26
šŸ’° Finance Fintech
  1. Big Techā€™s move into AI is creating new risks for the bond market by concentrating data, models, and trading influence in a few platforms that could amplify shocks.
  2. The UKā€™s phase-out of coal shows how coordinated policy and market shifts can rapidly retire fossil fuel capacity and offers a practical model for energy transition elsewhere.
  3. Engagements like Pasolini on Gramsci and Trotsky on Europe show that cultural and political theory still shape how we understand national identity and continental politics, offering different lenses on power and change.

Artificial Intelligence and Finance

Points And Figures ā€¢ 479 implied HN points ā€¢ 04 Feb 26
šŸ’° Finance Fintech
  1. Start small with AI projects: cheap, hands-on pilots can improve efficiency and save money while posing little risk to taxpayers.
  2. Real experience matters more than buzzwords; people who haven't worked with AI often buy useless solutions, so leaders should use knowledgeable, practical teams.
  3. AI will reshape finance by automating routine tasks and acting as a decision-support tool, freeing people to focus on higher-value work rather than magically executing better trades.

Perplexity Finance 101: The Complete Guide to AI-Powered Portfolio Tracking, Hidden Features & 80+ Power Prompts

The Product Channel By Sid Saladi ā€¢ 13 implied HN points ā€¢ 19 Mar 26
šŸ’° Finance Fintech
  1. Perplexity Finance is an AI-powered financial research terminal that gives cited, real-time answers and can even connect to your brokerage to analyze your actual portfolio.
  2. It consolidates market dashboards, heatmaps, earnings transcripts, SEC filings, portfolio analytics, crypto feeds, and alerts into one place so you can do deep research without hopping between tabs.
  3. The free tier is very capable for casual investors, Pro (about $20/month) is great value for serious research, and Max is aimed at power users as the product scales and attracts heavy investment.

Modern Meditations: Immad Akhund

The Generalist ā€¢ 740 implied HN points ā€¢ 18 Dec 25
šŸ’¼ Business Fintech
  1. Constant learning is the core skillā€”learn new domains, talk to experts, and treat excellence as the result of daily grinding and perseverance.
  2. Constraints are valuable: more resources donā€™t always speed things up, and growing headcount too fast can reduce productivity, so prefer measured, sustainable scaling.
  3. Be optimistic about long-term progress while thinking bigā€”study history to understand patterns and imagine bold projects like space habitats and new immersive tech.

Fintechā€™s Dumbest Lawsuit: Mastercard-Backed TomoCredit Flouts Trademark Dispute Settlement

Fintech Business Weekly ā€¢ 148 implied HN points ā€¢ 01 Feb 26
šŸ’° Finance Fintech
  1. Regulatory barriers protecting incumbent banks are being dismantled as many companiesā€”from automakers to foreign neobanksā€”push for bank charters and deposit insurance.
  2. Tether launched an 'onshore' USAā‚® and markets it as 'federally regulated.' U.S. stablecoin rules and issuer licenses aren't finalized yet, so that label is mainly marketing positioning.
  3. Several fintechs are failing or facing serious legal and compliance problems: Seis shut down from weak economics and churn, Kontigo faces sanctions and licensing issues, and TomoCredit is accused of deceptive practices and flouting a trademark settlement.

@adlrocha - Agents will make Code and Apps obsolete

@adlrocha Weekly Newsletter ā€¢ 64 implied HN points ā€¢ 15 Feb 26
šŸ•¹ Technology Fintech
  1. Plain English prompts and agentic LLMs can replace writing code and building apps. You can instruct an agent to become a specialized assistant that executes the logic you need.
  2. Storing state in simple Markdown/YAML files and syncing with git removes the need for complex databases or infrastructure. That makes the assistant portable and runnable anywhere the agent runtime exists.
  3. Connecting agents to data sources enables personalized, dataā€‘driven decisions and persistent action plans. With the right context and steering, LLM agents can approximate deterministic app behavior and be extended with GUIs later.

Top Links 957 The AI money machine. Against European self-denigration and a Louvre full of plan-relief.

Chartbook ā€¢ 371 implied HN points ā€¢ 20 Dec 25
šŸ•¹ Technology Fintech
  1. AI is presented as a powerful money machine that is reshaping where profits and investment flow.
  2. The piece pushes back against European self-denigration and urges Europeans not to underestimate their strengths and contributions.
  3. Economic analysis is paired with cultural and historical material, such as art and the Louvre, to broaden the conversation.

AI and I

Net Interest ā€¢ 39 implied HN points ā€¢ 20 Feb 26
šŸ’° Finance Fintech
  1. AI coding assistants let non-technical people automate tasks such as indexing archives and getting daily idea suggestions by learning from their past content. They still can't fully surface private experiences or write in someone's exact voice.
  2. AI adoption in finance is still limited, with many analysts barely using generative tools, but early adopters report meaningful productivity gainsā€”around 20% time savedā€”and are building AI-first cultures.
  3. AI is changing how market data is accessed and could weaken incumbents' competitive moats as firms and individuals build custom tools to replace traditional terminals. Data providers need to reposition themselves to stay relevant in an AI-first world.

Brexā€™s exit isnā€™t a failure

Alex's Personal Blog ā€¢ 164 implied HN points ā€¢ 23 Jan 26
šŸ’¼ Business Fintech
  1. Brex's sale to Capital One for about $5.15 billion should be seen as a success, not a failure. Despite earlier frothy valuations, the company turned more than a billion of investor capital into a multiā€‘billion dollar exit.
  2. OpenAI is growing rapidly and is financially healthy; it added over $1 billion in ARR in a month and still has large cash reserves and access to new funding. That makes the 'running out of money' narrative unlikely in the near term.
  3. The tech landscape is mixed: regulators are signaling tougher scrutiny of big-company acquisitions and layoffs continue at major firms, even as selfā€‘driving services expand into new cities. Growth and dealmaking will therefore occur under greater pressure and oversight.

Late-Cycle Investment Theory: Winter 2025ā€“2026 in 10 Snapshots

European Straits ā€¢ 21 implied HN points ā€¢ 22 Feb 26
šŸ’° Finance Fintech
  1. The US is showing early stagflation: growth is slowing, inflation remains sticky, and consumer spending is soft even as energy and tech costs rise with weak wage growth.
  2. China now operates at a civilisational scale that breaks ordinary economic frameworks, and it is building a massive electrified industrial base that could make it the leader of a new ā€˜electrostateā€™ era.
  3. The tech and financial cycles are shiftingā€”AI-driven hype looks like the wrong kind of bubble, while electrification (batteries, motors, power electronics) and tokenisation of finance are becoming the real structural forces reshaping industry and monetary order.

Kong AI Connectivity, AgentMail $6M, Mimecast Threat Detection

The API Changelog ā€¢ 1 implied HN point ā€¢ 17 Mar 26
šŸ•¹ Technology Fintech
  1. AI agents are becoming first-class users of APIs, with programmable banking and agent-native email that let agents act autonomously.
  2. New infrastructure is emerging to discover, control, and secure agent traffic ā€” think unified control planes, MCP registries, network-level authentication, and API-based threat detection.
  3. Companies need to treat APIs as programmable products and invest in AI-readiness, standard identifiers, and one-click integrations so agents can reliably and safely consume services.

Issue #149: Stripe Eyes PayPal, Block Cuts 4,000 Jobs for AI, And Coinbase Opens Stock Trading

Fintech Radar ā€¢ 10 implied HN points ā€¢ 01 Mar 26
šŸ’° Finance Fintech
  1. Stripe is exploring buying all or parts of PayPal ā€” likely eyeing Braintree or Venmo ā€” which would merge merchant infrastructure, consumer wallets, and crypto rails into a single payments powerhouse.
  2. Coinbase opened stock and ETF trading to all US users and teamed up with Yahoo Finance, letting people trade thousands of equities (and fund trades with USDC) so stocks and crypto live on one platform.
  3. Block cut about 4,000 jobs, betting that new AI capabilities can replace large swaths of work and turning the company into a much smaller, more automated organization ā€” a move that could signal similar shifts across fintech.

What Price Could A PayPal Buyout Happen At?

QTRā€™s Fringe Finance ā€¢ 25 implied HN points ā€¢ 24 Feb 26
šŸ’¼ Business Fintech
  1. Stripe is reportedly weighing a purchase of PayPal or parts of its business, which could reshape the payments landscape if it moves forward.
  2. Even preliminary takeover talks have already lifted PayPalā€™s stock by roughly 20 percent, showing how much market expectations can change from rumors alone.
  3. The rally prompts a dilemma for investors ā€” sell into the pop now or hold out for a potentially higher takeover price, since discussions are still early and outcomes are uncertain.

ā„ļø šŸ’³ Prime et Netflix gratuits ? Tinder Gold et 3 pass WeWork offerts ?

Snowball ā€¢ 1395 implied HN points ā€¢ 09 Jan 24
šŸ’° Finance Fintech
  1. Some credit cards offer unique benefits like free Amazon Prime or cashback in the form of investments.
  2. Revolut cards come with various advantages based on the subscription level, like free currency exchange or cashback on accommodations.
  3. American Express cards provide a range of benefits, from purchase guarantees to access to exclusive events. The higher-tier cards offer even more luxurious perks like worldwide lounge access.

Letters to a Young Founder: Immad Akhund of Mercury

The Generalist ā€¢ 1160 implied HN points ā€¢ 17 Jul 25
šŸ’¼ Business Fintech
  1. Shipping products with clear intention is crucial for success. It helps in creating items that truly meet customer needs.
  2. Being open to innovative and unconventional ideas can lead to unique products. This can set your company apart in a crowded market.
  3. Growth as a leader involves constant learning and adapting. It's important to reflect on your experiences and make improvements over time.

Excel Forever

Net Interest ā€¢ 42 implied HN points ā€¢ 06 Feb 26
šŸ’° Finance Fintech
  1. AI assistants can rapidly build serviceable financial models inside Excel by pulling public data and automating forecasts, showing how much routine analyst work can be automated.
  2. Excel remains the central workspace for finance because itā€™s a shared language that lets analysts inject judgment, so AI that integrates with Excel is more useful than tools that try to replace it.
  3. Advances in AI (bigger context windows and better reasoning) put pressure on legacy market-intelligence vendors and valuations, though complex cases and human judgment still matter.

Long Take: How can Farcaster avoid the death trap of decentralized social media?

The Fintech Blueprint ā€¢ 864 implied HN points ā€¢ 07 Feb 24
šŸ•¹ Technology Fintech
  1. Farcaster aims to blend social media with Web3 capabilities to create a more engaging platform.
  2. When shifting platforms, it's important to innovate without compromising the core user experience.
  3. Decentralized social media platforms like Steemit, EOS Voice, and BitClout have struggled due to prioritizing financial features over user engagement.

Issue #148: Visa Goes Shopping in Argentina, eBay Bets on Pay by Bank, And Mexico's Plata Beats Nubank to a Banking License

Fintech Radar ā€¢ 12 implied HN points ā€¢ 23 Feb 26
šŸ’° Finance Fintech
  1. Visa buying Argentinaā€™s Prisma and Newpay signals a major push to own payments infrastructure in Latin America, vertically integrating processing and wallets to capture fast digital growth. It also acts as a hedge against mounting regulatory pressure on its core card business.
  2. Large platforms are embedding financial services ā€” X is building broad money-transmission capabilities and eBay invested in TrueLayer to roll out Pay by Bank ā€” which could shift transactions away from cards toward bank-authenticated, account-to-account flows. These moves make platform-led payments a real competitive threat to traditional card networks.
  3. Fintech infrastructure and digital banks are maturing: Modern Treasuryā€™s unified fiat-and-stablecoin payments API simplifies moving money across rails, while Mexicoā€™s Plata winning a full banking licence ahead of bigger rivals shows regulators are enabling fast-growing digital banks. Together these trends lower barriers for startups to scale banking and payments products.

Retail Investors: The New Smart Money

Spilled Coffee ā€¢ 48 implied HN points ā€¢ 04 Feb 26
šŸ’° Finance Fintech
  1. Retail investors are now a permanent market force, making up roughly 20ā€“25% of trading volume and controlling a huge share of assets with over 100 million brokerage accounts.
  2. Theyā€™ve grown more sophisticated, increasingly using ETFs, options, and disciplined strategies like ā€œbuy the dip,ā€ signaling more diversified portfolios and better risk management.
  3. Real-time data, social platforms, and crowd-sourced research have collapsed information gaps, letting retail coordinate and influence markets in ways institutions must track and respond to.

What I read this weekā€¦

Chamath Palihapitiya ā€¢ 1238 implied HN points ā€¢ 27 Oct 23
šŸ’¼ Business Fintech
  1. Smugglers make billions by charging migrants to reach the U.S.
  2. Carta's CEO faced backlash over handling of sexual abuse claims against former execs.
  3. BP invests $100 million in Tesla chargers as part of a larger commitment to U.S. EV infrastructure.

A small progress

ThĆ”i | Hacker | Kį»¹ sĘ° tin tįŗ·c ā€¢ 818 implied HN points ā€¢ 22 Dec 23
šŸ•¹ Technology Fintech
  1. The Vietnamese Government is focusing on enhancing cybersecurity in the banking and cashless payment sectors to prevent system intrusions and theft from bank accounts.
  2. Foreign hackers have previously stolen significant amounts of money from domestic banks in Vietnam, prompting authorities to take action.
  3. Efforts by organizations like Calif, led by the author, aim to reduce vulnerabilities in critical national systems and contribute to enhancing security measures in Vietnam.

Partner Banking League Tables & Analysis: 2025

Fintech Business Weekly ā€¢ 14 implied HN points ā€¢ 15 Feb 26
šŸ’° Finance Fintech
  1. U.S. regulators are approving new bank charters faster, opening the door for de novo and crypto-focused banks to enter the market and reshape traditional banking relationships.
  2. Crypto firms are under growing compliance and card-network pressureā€”noā€‘KYC services can be shut down quicklyā€”so players are partnering with or investing in regulated banks and building onshore stablecoin solutions to legitimize their businesses.
  3. Fintech M&A is heating up, from celebrity-led deals like MrBeast buying Step to Grab taking control of Stash and large corporate acquisitions, signaling a consolidation wave that will change customer acquisition and product strategies.

Evolve Exec Pleads The Fifth in Missing Money Case

Fintech Business Weekly ā€¢ 44 implied HN points ā€¢ 18 Jan 26
šŸ’° Finance Fintech
  1. Evolveā€™s tie-up with Synapse left thousands of customers unable to access funds, reconciliations showed huge shortfalls, a key exec invoked the Fifth on FDIC insurance, and the bank is still finding and distributing more money more than 600 days after the freeze.
  2. Evolve is resisting document requests by citing consumer privacy rules even though it was previously hacked and leaked terabytes of data, and court filings say the bank doesnā€™t know how the forensic firm Ankura calculated amounts returned to users while seeking to seal deposition transcripts.
  3. bunq is reapplying for a U.S. national bank charter under a new U.S. holding structure, but faces tough odds: other European digital banks have struggled in America, the addressable market of European expats is small, and bunqā€™s fee-driven model, limited lending, and clunky app may not win many U.S. customers.

Prediction Markets Are (Obviously) Gambling

Huddle Up ā€¢ 91 implied HN points ā€¢ 22 Dec 25
šŸ’° Finance Fintech
  1. Prediction markets make it easy for people with secret information to trade anonymously, letting insiders profit and making the markets unfair. That destroys trust and turns useful information into a private money-making tool.
  2. They exploit a federal regulatory loophole so gambling-style markets are available nationwide and bypass state rules, and big platforms and brokers are embedding these products everywhere. This spreads access and influence fast while avoiding traditional gambling guardrails.
  3. Always-on prediction markets normalize betting on every news event and can increase addiction, financial harm, and social costs. By rewarding leaks and sensational outcomes, they erode public trust and turn public life into tradable events.

We must stop the IPO-hungry CEO

Alex's Personal Blog ā€¢ 98 implied HN points ā€¢ 16 Dec 25
šŸ’¼ Business Fintech
  1. Boards will replace CEOs who push to IPO sooner than directors think is wise, because investors want leadership stability through a public debut.
  2. Trade and tech policy are now tangled, with the US pressuring allies over digital rules and taxes, which could stall international cooperation on AI and other tech issues.
  3. Public markets are sorting winners and losers: some hardware startups are failing despite demand, while companies like Waymo and Notion are showing revenue traction that could reset the IPO narrative if they list carefully.

Issue #144: Capital One Snaps Up Brex, BitGo Goes Public, And PayPal Bets Big on Agentic AI

Fintech Radar ā€¢ 23 implied HN points ā€¢ 26 Jan 26
šŸ’° Finance Fintech
  1. Big banks are buying modern fintechs to get technology and customers fast, and Capital Oneā€™s purchase of Brex shows consolidation can still deliver big wins for founders even at lower valuations.
  2. Crypto infrastructure and tokenized assets are back in favor ā€” BitGoā€™s IPO and large tokenization raises signal strong institutional demand for regulated custody and onā€‘chain securities.
  3. Payments and commerce are shifting toward agentic AI and deeper embedded finance, with deals like PayPal buying Cymbio and products like afterā€‘purchase BNPL showing a land grab for AI-driven checkouts and merchant plumbing.