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Hello Fintech Friends, 

Welcome to 2025, a new year for fintech and payments.

If you've been reading the newsletter or following me on twitter for a while, you know that I have been a broken record for years and years about one particular payments innovation: stablecoins.

Interest in stables has never been higher.

But there are many, many still-unanswered implementation questions. Can you build the same kind of transaction protections as traditional rails, while remaining competitive on costs? How do you solve FX liquidity? What is the regulatory treatment?

That's why we are launching Stablecon, the largest global stablecoin conference, taking place in New York on May 29th:

I could not be more excited to share the great roster of speakers who will be joining us on-stage for one full day of stablecoin roundtables, debates, and presentations. Key speakers include:

• The Founder of Bridge
• CEO of BitGo
• CEO of Zero Hash
• CEO of Mesh
• Co-Founder and CBO of BVNK
• CEO of Bitso
• CEO of Yellow Card
• Superintendent of the NY Dept of Financial Services
• Former Commissioner of the CFTC
• Head of Crypto at Revolut
• Head of Crypto at Visa
• Head of Europe at Coinbase
• ...and many more speakers from Circle, Ripple, Paxos, Anchorage, and more

Stables are one of the most promising payment innovations with immediate, real-world applications in crypto and fintech. And I am willing to put my money where my mouth is as an investor this ecosystem via The Fintech Fund and our SPVs, which include portfolio companies like Brale, Zero Hash, CoinFlow, Rise, Conduit, Mesh Connect, TransFi, Goldfinch, Eco, LB Finanzas, and Paysail.

I had a chance to preview this topic in October, when I spoke with Visa's Cuy Sheffield and Brale's Ben Milne at TechCrunch Disrupt about Stablecoins: The Future of Fintech. Now, we get a full-day conference to investigate what that future looks like.

I couldn't be more excited for the conference and hope that you'll join us in New York on May 29th as an attendee.

Interested in partnering or speaking? Reach out to us at info@stablecon.com.

Stablecon

Stablecon

😔 On a more somber note: We're also thinking about our friends in the LA area this week who have been affected by the terrible wildfires there. We are looking into what TWIF can do to help them, so if you have any ideas or suggestions (or requests), please reach out to us.

Enjoy another week of fintech and banking (and stablecoin!) news below.

(👍👎 Have feedback for us? Let us know! Find me at @nikmilanovic, @twifintech, and @ndm)

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🍻 Upcoming Events

💼 Fintech Job of the Week

• Rainforest is hiring a Partnerships Manager (remote) - will drive referrals by cultivating deep relationships with VCs, PE Firms, and payments consultants.
• Rainforest is hiring a Director of Growth Marketing (remote) - will drive inbound pipeline through demand generation, performance marketing, ABM, and customer campaigns.

Share your job with 2,000+ fintech people in our Slack #hiring-and-jobs channel.

💬 Quote of the Week

🏦 Financial Services & Banking

JP Morgan posted record Q4 profits off the back of market volatility to end the year.

In January 2025, the incoming presidential administration appointed crypto-friendly officials, including Paul Atkins as SEC Chair and David Sacks as AI and crypto czar, signaling a shift toward legitimizing the cryptocurrency industry. SEC commissioners Hester Peirce and Mark Uyeda are weighing initiating the process that would ultimately lead to guidance or rules clarifying when the agency considers a cryptocurrency to be a security.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is busy ahead of the change in presidential administration: The watchdog sued Capital One for not disclosing its higher-yield account to customers. It also re-established regulatory sandboxes nd no-action letters, released a consumer protection roadmap for states, moved to cap overdraft fees, and proposed an interpretive rule to assist companies and investors in understanding existing regulations governing electronic fund transfers through accounts established primarily for personal, family, or household purposes using emerging payment mechanisms.

The Bank of England and the New York State Department of Financial Services initiated a resource-sharing agreement, exchanging senior staff with expertise in emerging payments and digital assets to enhance regulatory cooperation.

Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy's largest bank, conducted its first proprietary bitcoin trade, purchasing 11 bitcoins for 1 million euros, reflecting the growing integration of digital currencies within traditional financial institutions.

💻 Fintech

🚀 Product Launches

FactSet launched Pitch Creator, an AI-powered solution designed to revolutionize pitchbook creation for investment banks by automating model analysis and presentation building tasks.

Nubank expanded its USDC rewards program to all users of Nubank Cripto in Brazil, offering daily returns on a minimum balance of 10 USDC at a fixed rate of 4% per year, following a successful pilot program conducted over the previous year.

Boom introduced BoomScreen, a configurable tenant screening solution aimed at helping property managers reduce fraud, increase revenue, and efficiently select the best renters, addressing the evolving complexities and compliance requirements in tenant screening processes.

Robinhood announced plans to introduce AI-powered financial advice, expand into Asia with a new office in Singapore, and launch new products and services, aiming to become a comprehensive financial service provider.

Payments orchestration for stablecoins is coming.

Co-authored with Johannes Kaske Stablecoins promise faster global transfers, but often rely on fiat at the start and end of a transaction – known as the ‘stablecoin sandwich’. This use case can shave days off global settlement times, but involves manually coordinating multiple third parties, meaning

LinkedInChris Harmse

📰 Other News

Global neobank Revolut is making a push into private banking for wealthy clients, putting it in direct competition with big incumbents like UBS and Morgan Stanley.

Buy-now-pay-later giant Klarna is looking to offload its US loan book.

🤝 Partnership Corner

Klarna secured a global payment partnership with Stripe, enabling Klarna's buy-now-pay-later services to be integrated into Stripe's payment platform.

Remote, a global HR platform, collaborated with Stripe to introduce compliant stablecoin payouts for contractors worldwide. This feature allowed companies to pay contractors in 69 countries directly in USDC on the Base network.

👎 The Bad News

In December, Bench Accounting, a Vancouver-based fintech company, abruptly shut down after racking up over $65 million in debt, leaving customers and employees in uncertainty – such as the possibility of customers losing all their data. Shortly thereafter, Employer.com announced its acquisition of Bench, aiming to ensure continuity of services for Bench's clients.

Banking giant Barclays plans to shutter its Rise accelerator, which launched nearly a decade ago to support the fintech community.

State financial regulators from 48 states imposed an $80 million penalty on Block, the parent company of Cash App, for violations of the Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering laws. The enforcement action required Block to hire an independent consultant to review and enhance its BSA/AML compliance program.

Robinhood agreed to pay a $45 million settlement to the SEC over allegations of misleading customers regarding its revenue sources and failing to satisfy duty-of-best-execution obligations.

Last week, Divvy Homes, a rent-to-own startup, abruptly shut down and was acquired by Maymont Homes, a subsidiary of Brookfield Properties, for an undisclosed amount.

Level, a benefits startup focused on providing flexible employee benefits, also abruptly shut down last week, after raising $27 million in Series A funding in 2021.

Come meet us in-person at thisweekinfintech.com/events