The fintech industry is about to blow up. After slogging through what everyone called the “fintech winter,” things are finally heating up.
Crypto payments are stepping out of their niche, and the second Trump administration is promising looser rules . Fintech stocks are clawing their way back, and interest rate cuts are making money flow again.
Startups that had been riding high after the pandemic got a reality check when the funding dried up. Layoffs hit hard. Product launches slowed down. Valuations that once seemed untouchable suddenly looked bloated.
But now, the market’s waking up. Stablecoins, cross-border payments, and public listings are back in the spotlight, and everyone wants a piece of the action.
Crypto payments are going big
About a month after President Donald Trump won the US election, Bitcoin broke $108,000 for the first time in history. This guy is all-in on crypto. He’s even launched his own project, World Liberty Financial. It’s the kind of environment the crypto community has been dreaming about for years.
Stripe wasted no time. The company dropped $1.1 billion to grab Bridge, a startup that issues stablecoins. Stripe’s CEO, Patrick Collison, made it clear this is about global payments. Stablecoins are the future for cross-border transfers, especially since banks are now a joke.
PayPal is on it too. Its stablecoin, PYUSD, is already being used on Xoom, its money transfer service. That’s a big deal for anyone sending money internationally. Then there’s YellowCard, a startup built for exactly this kind of moment. They traded over $3 billion in crypto last year and are working to make expensive wire transfers a thing of the past.
Not everyone’s on board though. Airwallex, another big name in global payments, says the rules are still too unclear. Co-founder Jack Zhang admitted stablecoins could shake up payroll and cross-border business payments, but he’s holding back until there’s more clarity. For now.
Trump’s shakeup of fintech regulations
Let’s rewind to 2024. Synapse Financial, a banking-as-a-service company, went belly up. Thousands of customers were left hanging, unable to access their funds. Regulators pounced. The FDIC and CFPB went after fintech startups and the banks that partner with them. Some said it was necessary. Others argued it was a mess.
The CFPB didn’t stop there. It started poking around digital wallets and buy-now-pay-later companies like PayPal, Affirm, and Klarna. FDIC Chair Martin Gruenberg and CFPB Director Rohit Chopra became public enemies in fintech. Critics accused them of killing innovation with their “regulation by enforcement” approach.
Trump’s team has other plans. Reports say he wants to shrink—or maybe even kill—the CFPB. Elon Musk, now leading the Department of Government Efficiency (D.O.G.E), went full throttle on X, tweeting, “Delete CFPB.” President Trump is backing this and has the power to fire Chopra.
This could be a turning point. Fintech companies have been cautious, and scared of sudden rule changes. Amias Gerety, a partner at QED Investors, said Trump’s administration will change the tone. “Startups will start experimenting more. They won’t have to second-guess every move,” he explained.
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