Fireblocks to Integrate Stacks for Institutional-Grade Bitcoin DeFi
Fireblocks announced it will integrate the Stacks layer‑2 protocol to give institutional clients access to Bitcoin‑based DeFi lending and yield products. Stacks processes transactions in roughly five seconds, sidestepping Bitcoin’s ten‑minute block time while still anchoring finality on the Bitcoin ledger. The rollout is slated for early 2026, even as Bitcoin’s price has fallen about 40% from its recent peak. The move reflects growing institutional appetite for Bitcoin DeFi despite a market downturn.
Stablecoin Risks Rise as Blockchains Gain Systemic Role
GENIUS leaves a lot unspecified. In particular, we think people are underestimating the risks of decentralized blockchains as novel financial infrastructure. All blockchains are not created equal: Did you know the majority of stablecoin transactions are currently happening on Binance...
Personalized Banking at Scale Will Dominate the Future
The future of banking belongs to institutions that personalize at scale across the entire customer journey. https://t.co/xopg1mbn5M
Europe’s Role in the Next Wave of Tokenisation
The tokenisation of real‑world assets surged 260% in H1 2025, reaching $23 billion on‑chain, cementing its role as a cornerstone of institutional blockchain adoption. Major banks such as BlackRock, JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs are actively exploring tokenised products, yet growth is hampered...
What Dubai’s Ban on Monero and Zcash Signals for Regulated Crypto
Dubai's DFSA prohibited licensed firms in the DIFC from trading, marketing or packaging privacy‑focused tokens such as Monero and Zcash, though private ownership remains allowed. The rule reflects growing global AML pressure, aligning Dubai with upcoming EU restrictions and US...
Embedded Payments Give SaaS a Lifeline as AI Reshapes Workflows
AI-driven agentic systems are unsettling traditional SaaS subscription models, prompting a sharp sell‑off that saw software indexes tumble over 14% and marquee names like Thomson Reuters and Salesforce plunge double‑digit percentages. Investors fear that conversational AI could bypass entire application...
Fintech Recap: Shorting Tender, Crypto Market Structure & More
In this Fintech Recap episode, Jason Mikula and Alex Johnson dissect the latest fintech headlines, from the dark banking drama portrayed in HBO's "Industry" to Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong's unexpected pullback on crypto market‑structure legislation. They evaluate the potential impact...
EnFi Secures $15m Series A to Scale AI Credit Workforce
EnFi, an AI-native platform that supplies virtual agents for commercial lending, announced a $15 million Series A round, bringing its total capital to $22.5 million. The round was led by FINTOP with participation from Patriot Financial Partners, Commerce Ventures, Unusual Ventures and Boston...
Kingscrowd Offers Fund of More Mature, Profitable Private Firms
Kingscrowd has launched the Capital Profitability Fund, a $5 million vehicle aimed at mature private companies that are already profitable. The fund will invest in 25‑30 firms with revenues above $1 million and revenue multiples under 7.5×, targeting exits within three to...
Wero Payment Service Expands Pan-EU Availability Through Banking Circle
Wero, the European mobile payment solution developed by the European Payments Initiative, is now accessible through Banking Circle, extending its pan‑EU footprint. The integration enables businesses and fintechs to tap Wero’s real‑time, account‑to‑account transfers via Banking Circle’s APIs, complementing existing...
The Evolution of POS: From Terminals to Touchpoints
The point‑of‑sale has shifted from a simple card‑reading box to a cloud‑connected, software‑defined hub that drives payments, loyalty, inventory and analytics in real time. SoftPOS enables any NFC‑enabled smartphone to act as a full‑service terminal, expanding acceptance to micro‑merchants and...
Switzerland’s SIX Stock Exchange Reports Steady YoY Trading Volume
Switzerland’s SIX Group posted CHF 149.1 billion combined turnover for its Swiss and Spanish exchanges in January 2026, a 13.2% rise from December 2025 and 16.5% versus January 2025. Trading on the SIX Swiss Exchange grew 23.1% month‑over‑month, driven by an 86.6% jump in structured‑product...
The Global Wallet War: Who Will Own the Customer?
Digital wallets have evolved from simple payment tools into comprehensive consumer interfaces that combine payments, identity, loyalty, and credit. Big Tech, banks, and fintechs are racing to own this hub, each leveraging distinct strengths—device ecosystems, trust, and agility. Ownership of...
Indian Investors Are Buying the Bitcoin Price Dip, CoinDCX Says
Indian investors are shifting from speculative trading to disciplined Bitcoin buying, using systematic investment plans and strategic market orders. CoinDCX reports rising volumes, with trading up 15% from December to January, as investors diversify into Ether, Solana and XRP. The...
Mastercard Offers Agentic AI Tools
Mastercard announced it will roll out a new suite of agentic AI tools for business customers in the second quarter of 2026. The platform lets firms build, test and deploy AI‑powered agents to enhance security, payments processing and customer‑experience functions....
Spanish Lender BBVA Joins EU Banks' Stablecoin Venture to Challenge Digital Dollars
BBVA, Spain's second‑largest bank with $800 billion in assets, has become the 12th member of the Amsterdam‑based Qivalis consortium, which aims to launch a euro‑pegged stablecoin. The initiative seeks to provide a regulated, bank‑backed alternative to crypto‑native stablecoins that are dominated...
Case Study: Citi
Citi is using its Austin hub as a testing ground for a tech‑first banking model, shifting from experimental AI pilots to enterprise‑scale execution in early 2026. The bank deployed agentic AI for real‑time fraud mitigation, migrated its North American loan...
Mastercard Debuts Fleet Management Tools in Asia Pacific
Mastercard introduced a new portfolio called Mastercard Fleet: Next Gen across the Asia‑Pacific region, bundling payments, data capture and control tools for fuel, electric‑vehicle charging, maintenance, tolls and other fleet expenses. The solution offers globally accepted digital fleet cards, point‑of‑sale data...
Bitcoin-Native USDT Protocol Joins CTDG Dev Hub
Utexo, a Bitcoin-native USDT protocol, has been added to the Cointelegraph Decentralization Guardians (CTDG) Dev Hub. The project combines the Lightning Network’s fast, low‑fee payment channels with the RGB protocol’s client‑side asset model to issue and transfer USDT directly on...
Euro Stablecoin Boom Will Be Driven by RWA Tokenization, Not Payments: S& P Global
S&P Global Ratings forecasts that euro‑pegged stablecoins will expand dramatically, growing between 800‑ and 1,600‑fold by 2030 to a market size of €25 billion‑€1.1 trillion. The surge will be powered chiefly by tokenized real‑world‑asset (RWA) investments rather than everyday payments. Currently, the...
Ripple’s Prime Brokerage Platform Adds Support for Decentralized Exchange Hyperliquid
Ripple announced that its institutional prime brokerage platform, Ripple Prime, now integrates the decentralized derivatives exchange Hyperliquid. The link gives clients on‑chain perpetual liquidity while keeping margin and risk controls inside Ripple Prime, enabling cross‑margining of DeFi derivatives with traditional...
Why Strong Foundations Are an Imperative Part of Jethur Story
Jethur was created to address the chronic fragmentation of governance, risk, compliance, cybersecurity, and audit tools by offering a single, unified operating platform called RootX. The API‑first, microservice‑based architecture supports both cloud and on‑premises deployments, enabling regulated enterprises to maintain...
EP1 - Bitcoin Before Maximalism: The Experiments We Forgot.
In this debut episode, the hosts revisit Bitcoin’s early experimental era (2012‑2014), highlighting projects like Colored Coins, Mastercoin, Counterparty’s NFTs, and the Lightning Network. Guests JR Willett, Matt Luongo, Yoni Assia, Adam Krellenstein, and Elizabeth Stark discuss how these innovations...
BOXX Unveils Complete Cyber and Tech E&O Coverage
BOXX Insurance launched Tech E&O by BOXX, a comprehensive errors‑and‑omissions policy tailored for technology firms ranging from startups to enterprises. The product combines traditional E&O with integrated cyber coverage, 24/7 incident response, and a risk‑management platform. It introduces novel protections...
Top 10 Investment Management Software Providers
The investment‑management software market is projected to grow from $8.5 billion in 2025 to $25.95 billion by 2035, reflecting an 11.8% CAGR. Regulatory pressure, rapid market swings, and client demand for transparent reporting have turned these platforms into core infrastructure. The article...
CFTC Chair Says Bill Could Make US Crypto Gold Standard
🇺🇸 CFTC Chair Selig says the market structure bill can make the U.S. the "gold standard" for crypto regulation and could reach Trump’s desk within months. Source: Fox Business https://t.co/a0QxAGWKzX
Oracle Releases New Agentic Platform for the Banking and Finance Space
Oracle Financial Services unveiled an enterprise‑class, AI‑infused platform designed for banks and finance firms. The suite bundles pre‑built AI agents, design tools, and decisioning frameworks that deliver conversational, hyper‑personalized experiences across digital and branch channels. Oracle emphasizes a "human‑in‑the‑loop" model...
The Payment Facilitator Model as a Growth Strategy for ISVs
The episode explores how the payment facilitator (PayFac) model is becoming a key growth engine for independent software vendors (ISVs) amid the rise of SaaS, AI, and embedded finance. It highlights the superior merchant experience PayFacs deliver—simplified onboarding, ongoing risk...
Essential Practices for Keeping Business Technology Fully Secure
Businesses face escalating cyber threats, making comprehensive technology security essential. The article outlines a layered strategy that starts with regular risk assessments to pinpoint vulnerabilities and allocate defenses. It emphasizes strong password policies, multi‑factor authentication, and automated software patching as...
Q2 Holdings Releases 2026 Retail Banking Trends Report
Q2 Holdings released its 2026 Retail Banking Trends and Priorities report, revealing a decisive shift from external disruption to internal execution, data, and modernization. The study shows advanced technology adoption rising to 49% of banks’ priorities, while fewer than 10%...
ClearBank and Volt Partner to Bring Open Banking Closer to ‘Card Parity’
ClearBank has teamed up with real‑time payments platform Volt to launch GBP and EUR merchant accounts powered by ClearBank’s cloud‑native infrastructure. The new accounts provide virtual IBANs, named accounts and full lifecycle features such as automated reconciliation, fund attribution and...
MomentProof Deploys Patented Digital Asset Protection
MomentProof, Inc. has deployed its patented MomentProof Enterprise platform for AXA, enabling cryptographically sealed, AI‑resilient digital assets in the insurer's claims process. The technology certifies images, video, audio and metadata at capture, providing deterministic authenticity verification. AXA reports eliminated probabilistic...
Banks Are Not Prepared for the Industrialization of Crypto Theft
Drainer‑as‑a‑Service (DaaS) platforms are industrializing crypto theft, letting low‑skill actors launch high‑value heists at scale. Traditional bank compliance, reliant on static blacklists, cannot keep pace with the real‑time, multi‑domain attacks these services enable. The author urges banks to shift from...
Noah Taps Sumsub for Reusable KYC
Financial infrastructure firm Noah has teamed up with identity‑verification specialist Sumsub to embed a reusable KYC framework across its platform. The integration enables users verified by any of Sumsub’s 4,000+ partner institutions to onboard on Noah‑powered wallets, exchanges and payment...
U.S. Crypto Media Attention Now Mirrors Venture Capital, Leaving Most Visibility to a Small Tier
Outset PR’s Q4 2025 analysis shows U.S. crypto‑media traffic collapsed while a tiny elite captured almost all attention. Visits fell from roughly 148 million to 106 million, yet the 53 tier‑1 publishers (over 400 k monthly visits) generated more than 95 % of the remaining...
Kreios and BVI Bring AI-Driven Compliance to German Funds
Kreios and the German fund association BVI have formed a strategic cooperation to embed regulatory expertise into operational compliance using AI and rules‑based automation. Kreios will supply its REGMATIX platform, which automates document checks and applies digital validation rules, while...
This Onchain Metric Has Identified the Bitcoin Bottom Every Cycle
The BTC profit‑vs‑loss supply metric compares the amount of Bitcoin held at a cost basis above the current price with the amount held below it. Glassnode reports 11.1 million BTC in profit and 8.9 million in loss, indicating a narrowing gap. Historically,...
Survey: Bankers Say Competition for Deposits Is Heating Up
Community bankers report that credit unions are now their primary rival for deposits, with 66% noting heightened competition. The survey also reveals that 82% anticipate at least 11 more credit‑union acquisitions of banks this year, continuing a trend of 16...
Crypto Going Mainstream Among US Merchants
According to a PayPal and National Cryptocurrency Association survey, 39% of U.S. merchants now accept cryptocurrency at checkout, and 84% anticipate it becoming commonplace within five years. Customer demand is a primary driver, with 88% of merchants reporting inquiries about...
Jayavardhan Reddy ,Profile Summary
Jayavardhan Reddy is a Site Reliability and DevOps engineer specializing in modernising large‑scale, transaction‑critical systems for banking and global payments. He has led reliability, automation, and observability initiatives, migrating legacy workloads to containerised platforms and building CI/CD pipelines that boost...
Chase Launches All-in-One Insurance Bundle for UK Customers
Chase has introduced Chase Protect, its first insurance offering, bundling worldwide travel, mobile phone, and AA breakdown cover for a fixed £12.50 monthly fee. The product is embedded in the Chase mobile app, allowing customers to purchase, manage policies, and...
Payoneer CFO Eyes Stablecoin, AI Innovation Amid ‘Stop-Start’ Economy
Payoneer CFO Bea Ordonez says the company is navigating a volatile, stop‑start global trade environment by doubling down on its highly local, globally‑scaled network. The fintech firm, which operates across 7,000 trade routes and holds eight regulatory licenses, is investing...
Top Five Insurance Industry Predictions for 2026
UK insurers face a softening rate environment in 2026, prompting a shift toward data‑driven decision making. nCino predicts that embedding real‑time intelligence into underwriting and broker workflows will become a key competitive edge. Firms are urged to differentiate on service...
CFD Focused Equiti Group Enhances Deposits and Cross-Border Transfers with Checkout.com
Equiti Group has teamed up with global payments provider Checkout.com to upgrade its Equiti Pay gateway, adding card deposits, pay‑to‑card transfers and digital wallets such as Apple Pay and Google Pay. The integration promises faster, more reliable cross‑border funding and...
Vault Selects Thredd as Issuing Processor
Vault Payment Solutions, a leading Australian card‑payments provider, has selected Thredd as its issuing processor to support expansion into new regions on Mastercard’s global network. The partnership will enable Vault to launch prepaid, debit and private‑label card programmes in Australia...
Cytora and Altitude Intelligence Partner to Enhance Commercial Underwriting
Cytora and Altitude Intelligence have formed a strategic partnership to embed Altitude’s high‑fidelity geospatial and multi‑source intelligence directly into Cytora’s AI‑driven underwriting platform. The integration enables commercial insurers to enrich submissions with real‑time climate and location insights at the point...
PayPal-Backed Modulr Banks First Full-Year Profit
PayPal‑backed UK fintech Modulr announced its first full‑year net profit for 2025, reversing a £11 million pre‑tax loss recorded in 2024. CEO Myles Stephenson said the profitability milestone gives the company control to invest in new products, expand globally and pursue...
Fitch Solutions Delivers AI-Ready Credit Data on Snowflake Marketplace
Fitch Solutions has partnered with Snowflake to list its credit intelligence and loan‑level performance datasets on the Snowflake Marketplace. The initial offering includes Fitch Ratings data and dv01 benchmarks for U.S. auto, consumer unsecured, and non‑agency RMBS sectors, with more...
Pulte: GSE Stock Move Odds 'Strong,' But 'We Don't Have To'
Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte told Fox News that there are "very strong odds" of a public stock offering for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac this year, though the Trump administration is also weighing other options. The administration’s...
How One CDFI Is Navigating the Chaos in Minneapolis
WomenVenture, a Minneapolis‑based Community Development Financial Institution, has provided emergency assistance to 108 small businesses as Minnesota grapples with the federal Operation Metro Surge immigration enforcement. The crackdown has slashed foot traffic, caused labor shortages, and driven sales declines as...