Bilt Embeds Loyalty at Checkout with Verifone

Bilt Embeds Loyalty at Checkout with Verifone
  • Bilt is partnering with Verifone to embed its loyalty and customer experience platform directly into Verifone Victa point-of-sale devices and will allow merchants to recognize and engage members at checkout with personalized experiences.
  • The integration requires no new hardware and works across multiple payment providers.
  • For Bilt, the deal creates a scalable distribution channel through Verifone’s point-of-sale devices, significantly expanding its merchant reach.

Loyalty platform Bilt announced it is teaming up with Verifone this week. The partnership will integrate Bilt’s experience and loyalty platform into Verifone’s Victa point-of-sale hardware devices.

The nine Verifone Victa point-of-sale devices range from enterprise-grade registers to small mobile and portable devices. Integrating Bilt’s loyalty tools into these devices will help merchants engage customers at point of sale by embedding personalized experiences and member identity into the payment experience.

The native integration, which won’t require additional hardware investment or changes to existing workflows, is designed to be easy for merchants to adopt. It works across multiple payment providers as an out-of-the-box tool that has already been tested and certified, which lowers implementation risk and shortens the time it takes for businesses to go live with Bilt’s customer experience tools.

“By embedding Bilt’s loyalty technology directly into the Verifone platform, delivered through Victa, we’re enabling merchants to elevate customer engagement without adding hardware or disrupting existing workflows,” said Verifone CEO Himanshu Patel. “Through the Verifone gateway, merchants get a pre-certified, enterprise-grade integration that accelerates time to market and is already proven at scale—while unlocking access to Bilt’s member base.”

Bilt was founded in 2021 to offer a loyalty rewards program and credit card that allows renters to earn points when they pay their rent, building credit with every payment. With no annual fee, the Bilt Mastercard credit card also allows cardholders to earn points on select dining experiences, rideshare purchases, and travel purchases. These points can be redeemed for travel, fitness classes, home decor, and even a down payment on a future home.

For Bilt, today’s partnership has the potential to massively increase its merchant footprint by placing its loyalty and customer experience tools directly into widely deployed point-of-sale hardware. By meeting merchants where transactions already occur, Bilt can scale distribution without requiring merchants to adopt new systems or change how they operate.

This is big news for Bilt. The partnership has the potential to move Bilt from a card-centric loyalty program into embedded commerce infrastructure that meets consumers and merchants directly at the point-of-sale.

“Partnering with Verifone—the gold standard in payment hardware—means our merchant partners get best-in-class customer experience technology that’s already delivering better reviews, faster operations, and happier customers,” said Bilt Founder and CEO Ankur Jain. “This partnership with Verifone brings our proven membership and loyalty tech right to the point-of-sale—dining, fitness, retail, you name it. Together, we’re completely changing how merchants connect with their customers. Now they can automatically recognize and reward people at checkout, which means every transaction becomes a chance to build real relationships and unlock new revenue with personalized offers.”

Bilt will begin rolling out the Verifone integration with select restaurant groups, and will make its tools more available to a broader set of merchants throughout 2026.

Clover Selects Wink to Offer Biometric-Powered Payments

Clover Selects Wink to Offer Biometric-Powered Payments
  • Clover is partnering with Wink to embed biometric identity directly into the payment flow across Clover’s point-of-sale ecosystem.
  • The integration enables identity-based payments using facial, palm, and voice recognition and will support transactions, loyalty enrollment, and age verification without passwords, physical cards, or additional hardware.
  • The partnership treats identity as a core layer of the transaction and aims to deliver faster checkout, reduced fraud, and simpler operations for merchants.

Fiserv-owned Clover, a company that provides Android-powered point-of-sale tools, announced it is partnering with biometric identity and payments platform Wink to offer a new way to pay.

Clover will integrate Wink’s biometric identity technology into its existing platform, enabling identity-based payments designed to improve security and streamline checkout for both merchants and customers.

Texas-based Wink, a FinovateSpring 2023 Best of Show winner, provides a multi-factor biometric platform that combines facial, palm, voice, and device recognition to authenticate customer identities across in-store, mobile, and online transactions—without relying on passwords, physical cards, or additional hardware.

The integration brings together Clover’s payment and loyalty tools with Wink’s biometric authentication capabilities, allowing consumers to complete transactions, enroll in loyalty programs, and verify age-restricted purchases using biometric authentication. All transactions are processed through Wink’s PCI Level 1 and SOC 2–compliant payment gateway.

“The future of commerce is the unification of payment and identity,” said Fiserv SVP and Global Chief Product Officer of Merchant Solutions Sanjay Saraf. “By embedding Wink’s leading biometric security and intelligence directly into the Clover platform, we’re making cutting-edge technology simple, secure, and accessible for Main Street SMB businesses, helping them to deliver exceptional experiences and unlock new opportunities for growth.”

While contactless payments tools became less exciting after COVID, the heart of this collaboration is around a more central aspect of payments: identity. By integrating Wink’s tools, Clover is bringing identity into the core layer of the transaction, rather than a separate step handled through passwords, cards, or manual checks. For merchants, this could mean faster throughput, lower fraud, and fewer operational touchpoints.

Clover was originally founded in 2010 to help small businesses accept payments. Today, the company serves as a one-stop shop for multiple payment needs. In addition to offering a range of payment acceptance terminals, Clover also has software to help businesses with online orders, accounting, loyalty programs, staff management, inventory, and more.

Clover was acquired in 2012 by First Data, which was acquired by Fiserv in 2019.

“Wink’s strategic integration with Clover will bring unparalleled security, speed, and intelligence to every transaction across a large ecosystem of merchants, app developers, and partners,” said Deepak Jain, Founder and CEO of Wink. “We are excited to work closely with Fiserv to bring to market many advanced use cases of identity-driven payments that will define the future of connected commerce at scale across retail, hospitality, venues, and stadiums.”

Clover will make the biometric capabilities available across all of its point-of-sale devices, including Station Duo, Mini, Flex, and Clover Kiosk, and will not require additional hardware changes. The new biometric technology will be available to QSRs, sports venues, and retailers, in a continuous rollout throughout 2026.


Photo by Angela Roma

Four Identity and Fraud Startups Laying the Foundation for Digital Finance

Four Identity and Fraud Startups Laying the Foundation for Digital Finance

As we enter the next era of digitization 2.0, identity verification and fraud prevention have moved from supporting roles to critical infrastructure. At the same time, advances in AI are making it easier for bad actors to circumvent legacy controls, increasing both the complexity and the stakes of managing digital risk.

From onboarding new customers to authenticating transactions and preventing losses in real time, banks and fintechs are under pressure to strike the right balance between security and user experience. Fortunately, fintechs are tackling this challenge head-on, building identity and fraud controls that reduce friction, strengthen trust, and make digital finance scalable. The four companies below are building some of the most cutting-edge tools in this segment and will showcase their solutions on the demo stage at FinovateEurope, which takes place February 10 and 11 in London.


Candour Identity

Candour Identity aims to improve digital onboarding by combining identity verification, biometrics, and fraud prevention into a single workflow. The platform is designed to help financial institutions increase conversion rates while maintaining regulatory compliance, enabling ongoing biometric authentication beyond initial onboarding. By supporting daily identity checks for login and payment use cases, Candour reduces fraud losses without introducing additional friction for legitimate users.


Darwinium

Darwinium helps organizations detect and prevent fraud while minimizing friction for trusted customers. Its platform distinguishes between high-risk and low-risk users in real time, allowing banks and fintechs to provide a “VIP” experience to good customers while applying stronger controls where needed. The approach is designed to reduce fraud losses without sacrificing the overall customer experience.


Elephant

Elephant targets false declines and chargebacks, two persistent challenges in digital payments. By improving transaction decisioning, the company helps businesses approve more legitimate transactions while reducing downstream fraud and disputes. The result is higher authorization rates, fewer customer complaints, and lower operational costs tied to chargeback management.


Keyless

With Keyless, users are the key. The company’s technology replaces traditional multi-factor authentication methods, such as one-time passwords, with biometric authentication. Keyless’s technology enables passwordless and tokenless login experiences while maintaining strong security controls. By removing reliance on call centers and manual recovery flows, Keyless aims to improve user experience and significantly reduce authentication-related costs for banks. Keyless was acquired by Ping Identity in November 2025.

Why banks should care

Digital channels are increasingly becoming the primary point of interaction with customers, shifting the importance of verification technologies. The companies highlighted above show how banks, payments firms, and marketplaces can reduce fraud and operational costs while improving customer experience by applying smarter, more adaptive controls. Rather than relying on rigid rules or legacy authentication methods that can easily be spoofed using AI, modern identity and fraud platforms allow banks to approve more good customers, intervene only when risk is real, and scale digital growth without sacrificing trust.

To watch these companies demo their newest tools in person, register for FinovateEurope, see what’s new, and shake hands with the innovators.


Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko

Barclays Invests in Crypto Connectivity Startup Ubyx

Barclays Invests in Crypto Connectivity Startup Ubyx
  • Barclays has made its first investment in digital currency infrastructure by backing Ubyx.
  • Ubyx aims to simplify the redemption and acceptance of stablecoins and tokenized deposits through a many-to-many clearing system designed to unify today’s fragmented digital money landscape.
  • The move shows that Barclays is focused on regulated interoperability rather than issuing its own stablecoin.

UK-based banking giant Barclays is making its first investment in the digital currency infrastructure space this week. The bank made a strategic investment in Ubyx, a US-based clearing system for digital money.

Ubyx was founded in 2025 to create stablecoin ubiquity. In other words, the company focuses on facilitating live transactions through a many-to-many clearing system to make redeeming stablecoins and tokenized deposits as simple as depositing a check. Ubyx uses a collaborative network model to transform the current, fragmented stablecoin landscape into a unified, ubiquitous payment system.

“Our mission is to build a common globalized acceptance network for regulated digital money including tokenized deposits and regulated stablecoins,” said Ubyx CEO Tony McLaughlin.

Barclays’ strategic involvement is especially important in Ubyx’s model, as the traditional bank adds a regulated element to the payments model. “Bank participation is vital to provide par value redemption through regulated channels. We are entering a world in which every regulated firm offers digital wallets in addition to traditional bank accounts.”

While it serves as one of the top banks in the UK, Barclays has previously not been among those launching stablecoin programs. Today’s investment is Barclays’ first major move in the stablecoin space since October of 2025, when the bank joined a group of ten major financial institutions to explore a jointly issued stablecoin pegged to G7 currencies.

“Interoperability is essential to unlock the full potential of digital assets,” said Barclays Head of Digital Assets and Strategic Investments Ryan Hayward. “As the landscape of tokens, blockchains, and wallets evolves, specialist technology will play a pivotal role in delivering connectivity and infrastructure to enable regulated financial institutions to interact seamlessly. We are pleased to be joining Ubyx on their journey as we drive forward our shared ambition to accelerate and shape innovation across our industry.”

What’s interesting in this move is that Barclays isn’t taking a step toward issuing its own stablecoin or tokenized deposits. Instead, the bank is focused on interoperability, redemption, and acceptance at par.

While clearing and settlement have long been dominated by bank-led networks, they are currently a bottleneck in digital money adoption. Ubyx’s many-to-many clearing model aims to solve that bottleneck, and Barclays’ participation adds regulatory credibility at a moment when banks are looking for ways to engage with digital assets without fragmenting liquidity or bypassing existing safeguards.


Photo by Jose Marroquin on Unsplash

Citi Taps CredAble for Trade Finance Controls

Citi Taps CredAble for Trade Finance Controls
  • Citi has selected CredAble as a fintech partner to modernize trade finance controls by adding invoice and shipping data verification to its digital trade loan tools.
  • By integrating CredAble’s white-labelled technology, Citi aims to reduce fraud, manual reconciliation, and post-disbursement risk while improving transparency and speed for corporate clients and their suppliers.
  • The partnership reflects a broader trend of banks embedding fintech infrastructure into core trade finance workflows, as institutions look to add automation, intelligence, and trust to increasingly complex global supply chains.

Citi has selected India-based CredAble, a company that provides working capital infrastructure for banks and other businesses, to modernize trade finance controls and better verify invoices after payments are made across global markets. 

Through its network of more than 20 ecosystem partners, CredAble provides liquidity programs for enterprise ecosystems, offers API-based working capital solutions and embedded credit solutions for banks, and provides an all-in-one credit, trade, and cash management platform for small businesses. Since it was founded in 2017, the company has served more than 175 corporations and 350,000 small businesses.

“This partnership goes beyond product innovation. It reflects our joint vision of making trade finance smarter, more secure, and aligned with the digital expectations of global businesses,” said CredAble Co-founder and MD Ram Kewalramani. “We are proud to be Citi’s fintech partner and elevate the standard for invoice verification and supplier financing.”

Citi will use a white-labelled solution from CredAble to add a verification layer to its digital trade loan tool. Integrating CredAble’s technology will allow Citi to help its corporate clients and their suppliers validate invoices by detecting inconsistencies and verifying shipping data with a user experience that offers better transparency and speed.

Overall, Citi’s tool will reduce manual follow-ups and enhance the accuracy of invoices without disrupting existing business workflows.

“As supply chains become more global and complex, digitization is essential to deliver control and confidence at scale,” said Citi Head of Asia South and Indian subcontinent, Trade and Working Capital Solutions, Mayank Gupta. “Our collaboration with CredAble supports our vision of modernizing trade with technology that is secure, user-centric, and built for widespread adoption.”

In an increasingly digital era, traditional banks are turning to fintechs to modernize trade finance infrastructure. Embedding invoice verification and shipping data validation into digital trade loan tools will help banks address fraud, manual reconciliation, and post-disbursement risk. As international trade continues to rise, fintechs like CredAble and its competitors like Persona will increase in popularity as they help banks add intelligence, automation, and trust to trade finance processes.


Photo by Tiger Lily

Cross-Border Payments Fintech Flutterwave Acquires Open Banking Firm Mono

Cross-Border Payments Fintech Flutterwave Acquires Open Banking Firm Mono
  • Flutterwave has agreed to acquire Mono, bringing open banking capabilities fully in-house as it pushes toward a more interoperable financial infrastructure across Africa.
  • The deal allows Flutterwave to natively integrate financial data access, identity verification, and account-to-account payments.
  • Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Cross-border payments company Flutterwave revealed it has agreed to acquire Mono, a fellow Africa-based fintech focused on providing open banking tools. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

For Flutterwave, investing in open banking technologies shows that it is committed to building an interoperable financial system for Africa. While Flutterwave originally partnered with Mono in 2022, the acquisition will allow the company to fully integrate Mono’s API-driven open banking elements. The native integration will offer users secure access to financial data, identity verification, and account-to-account payments. It will also create a clear path for expanding into richer alternative payment methods, authenticated payment flows, and open banking-enabled stablecoin use cases.

“This acquisition reflects how we think about the future of financial infrastructure in Africa,” said Flutterwave Founder and CEO Olugbenga ‘GB’ Agboola. “Payments, data, and trust cannot exist in silos. Open banking provides the connective tissue, and Mono has built critical infrastructure in this space. This acquisition allows us to expand what’s possible for businesses operating across African markets, while staying grounded in security, compliance, and local relevance.”

Mono was founded in 2020 to provide financial data, identity verification, and direct bank payments for businesses. With five million linked accounts across more than 500 banks and fintechs, the Lagos-based fintech covers three different countries.

“Mono’s capabilities across financial data access, direct bank payments, and identity verification, combined with Flutterwave’s unmatched scale and global reach, create something more defensible and comprehensive,” said Mono Founder and CEO Abdulhamid Hassan. “This acquisition allows us to build the infrastructure layer that powers the next generation of African fintech at the speed and scale the continent deserves.”

Once the acquisition is finalized, Mono will continue to operate independently with its leadership structure intact. Mono will also retain operational control, which will allow it to maintain its pace of innovation.

Flutterwave accepts payments in more than 30 currencies, processing an average of 500,000 payments each day. In addition to its payments technology, Flutterwave also offers invoicing technology, business loans, and analytics tools. Since it was founded in 2016, Flutterwave has raised more than $470 million and has processed over one billion transactions in excess of $40 billion.

The move positions Flutterwave toward full-stack financial infrastructure. It also reflects a broader industry shift toward open banking–enabled payment flows, where verified data and authenticated transfers reduce fraud, improve conversion, and unlock new use cases. For Africa’s fragmented financial ecosystem, tighter integration between payments and data infrastructure has the potential to boost interoperability while giving cross-border payment players like Flutterwave greater control over compliance, reliability, and product velocity.


Photo by Muhammad-Taha Ibrahim

Returning to the Office? Here’s the Top Fintech News You Missed

Returning to the Office? Here’s the Top Fintech News You Missed

If you stepped away from your desk over the holidays, you are probably realizing that fintech didn’t slow down while you were gone. Even if your email inbox is finally back to zero at this point, we’re here to help you filter out the noise and catch up on the important fintech news you missed. Below, we’ve rounded up the most important fintech developments that broke during the holiday lull.


December 19

Mercury applies for OCC national bank charter to become the bank for builders.

Business banking fintech Mercury submitted an application to the OCC for a national bank charter and applied for federal deposit insurance with the FDIC. Receiving approval from these agencies would allow Mercury to operate as an FDIC-insured national bank. The move would grant Mercury independence from its partner banks, Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., giving the fintech full control of its customers.

European Central Bank (ECB) completes its technical and preparatory work on the digital euro.

ECB President Christine Lagarde said during a press conference that the bank has completed technical and preparatory work on the digital euro. In the statement, Lagarde mentioned that the digital euro is a priority for Europe’s financial future. The announcement proves that central bank digital currencies are still on the table for 2026, even as stablecoins and tokenized deposits take precedence in the headlines.

December 30

Retail investment platform PrimaryBid lays off about 40% of its workforce.

The UK-based company’s newest registry filings indicate that PrimaryBid’s average employee headcount fell to 91, which is down from 152 during the same period last year. PrimaryBid has a long-term agreement with the London Stock Exchange to allow everyday retail investors to transact at the same time and price as institutional investors.

December 22

Digital bank Erebor closed $350 million in funding at a $4.35 billion valuation.

Erebor is a new digital bank that was founded by Palmer Luckey, billionaire and founder of Oculus VR and Anduril Industries. The new digital bank seeks to bridge traditional finance with the digital asset economy and has already obtained FDIC approval and conditional approval from US banking regulators. The bank is expected to launch this year.

Fiserv and Mastercard partner to advance agentic commerce.

Fiserv announced it is deepening its partnership with Mastercard, leveraging Mastercard’s Agent Pay Acceptance Framework to offer interoperable agentic commerce and empower merchants to embrace AI-driven payments.

December 23

JPMorgan considers allowing crypto trading for institutional clients.

With Jamie Dimon’s negative comments about crypto far in the past, JPMorgan announced plans to allow institutional clients to trade crypto. The announcement comes weeks after the bank’s asset management arm launched its first tokenized money fund.


Photo by Ono Kosuki

Where Are They Now? Highlights from FinovateEurope 2025 Best of Show Winners

Where Are They Now? Highlights from FinovateEurope 2025 Best of Show Winners

Last year’s FinovateEurope conference brought together fintech creators from around the world. At the event, our audience voted for three standout companies that took home Best of Show honors for their demos. Almost a year out from FinovateEurope 2025, and with FinovateEurope 2026 coming up on February 10 and 11, we’re taking a look at how last year’s three Best of Show winners in innovation have continued to grow, influence their markets, and shape the future of financial services technology.

Keyless

At FinovateEurope 2025, Keyless showcased its privacy-preserving biometric authentication solution that replaces traditional, multi-factor authentication with fast, passwordless identity verification using zero-knowledge biometrics.

Nine months later, the company agreed to be acquired by identity and access management company Ping Identity. Keyless’s biometric authentication technology will be integrated into Ping Identity’s platform to expand adoption of secure, privacy-first login experiences across enterprise environments.

This acquisition not only validates Keyless’s technology but it also demonstrates the importance of seamless, secure authentication.

R34DY & ABLEMENTS

Hungarian fintech R34DY and its ABLEMENTS integration platform won Best of Show in London thanks to its solution that aims to simplify complex integrations between legacy core systems and modern microservices architectures.

Since its FinovateEurope demo, R34DY has continued to build on both its product and presence. The company added four main modules to ABLEMENTS, each addressing critical needs in context engineering; completed eight proofs of concept, demonstrating real-world value; and found six flagship use cases for the product, demonstrating diverse applications of the solution.

Overall, R34DY’s platform has attracted attention for its ability to bring context-aware automation and faster time-to-market for banks and fintechs seeking to modernize complex workflows.

Tweezr

Tweezr took Best of Show honors at FinovateEurope 2025 for its AI-powered developer assistant, a tool built to help teams accelerate time-to-market while navigating legacy code and modernization efforts.

Over the past year, Tweezr has continued to refine and expand its platform to help organizations address the notorious difficulty of maintaining and modernizing mission-critical systems without sacrificing stability or productivity. Having been founded in mid-2024, Tweezr is still early in its growth journey, but its tools will be increasingly relevant as firms navigate the intersection of AI solutions and legacy systems.

Looking Ahead: FinovateEurope 2026

While these winners are just a snapshot of the new technologies available in fintech today, they show how the Finovate stage can serve as a springboard to real-world traction, strategic partnerships, and industry recognition.

Join us February 10 through 11 in London for FinovateEurope 2026 to see the next wave of fintech demos first-hand and learn how they will shape the future of financial services. Whether you’re a founder, builder, investor, or enterprise leader, the opportunity to meet, connect, and collaborate with tomorrow’s fintech leaders awaits.


Photo by Philippe BONTEMPS on Unsplash

OnePay Becomes Infrastructure for Agent-Led Commerce

OnePay Becomes Infrastructure for Agent-Led Commerce
  • OnePay has joined Google’s Agent Payments Protocol (AP2), moving the Walmart-owned fintech from traditional payments into providing infrastructure for agent-led, AI-driven commerce.
  • Unlike networks such as Mastercard, PayPal, and American Express that provide payment rails within AP2, OnePay is joining as a credential provider that will define how AI agents store credentials, interpret user intent, select payment instruments, and disclose financing options.
  • By positioning itself upstream of transactions, OnePay is aiming to govern the rules and guardrails of autonomous payments.

OnePay, the Walmart-owned digital banking platform, announced yesterday that it is joining Google’s Agent Payments Protocol (AP2). The partnership moves OnePay from offering traditional payments to becoming infrastructure for agentic payments.

Google launched AP2 in September 2025 to provide an open, standardized framework for digital payments. AP2 connects banks, fintechs, and merchants with its protocol that creates a common language for how AI agents can transact on behalf of users.

While OnePay joins heavyweights such as Mastercard, PayPal, and American Express in enlisting in AP2, it will not serve in the same capacity as the payments players, which are providing the payment rails. Instead, OnePay is joining as a credential provider, meaning the company will focus on how payment credentials are stored, secured, and reused by AI agents, how the user intent is expressed, how agents choose between different payment instruments, and how financing options are disclosed. Essentially, OnePay is taking on the role of defining the rules and guardrails that govern agent behavior.

For OnePay, joining AP2 positions the company as critical infrastructure for agent-led commerce. By acting as a credential provider within AP2, OnePay helps solve how agents securely store, select, and reuse payment credentials while respecting user constraints like spending limits, merchant rules, and financing preferences.

“We’re excited to collaborate with Google and the broader ecosystem to bring these ideas to life,” said OnePay CTO Moe Matar. “As AI begins handling more of the everyday work in commerce, consumers deserve a payments infrastructure that is fast, trustworthy, and aligned with their intent.”

Notably, this move positions OnePay upstream of payments. Since it was founded in 2020, the company has focused on facilitating transactions. Today’s announcement indicates OnePay has much bigger plans as it broadens its scope into governing how autonomous commerce decisions are made.

How Citi is Thinking About Fintech Funding Trends with Mary Joseph

How Citi is Thinking About Fintech Funding Trends with Mary Joseph

As the macroeconomic landscape changes and startup valuations adjust, financial services companies face new questions about where to spend their funds. Both investors and founders find themselves asking questions about what future funding will look like, which fintech niches are the most promising, and how startups can thrive with tighter funding restrictions.

At FinovateFall 2025 in New York, Citi’s Senior Vice President of Strategic Investments, Mary Joseph, shared her perspective on these trends with William Mills, CEO of The William Mills Agency. During the conversation, Joseph shared her outlook on current funding dynamics, sector leadership, and what founders should consider as they build resiliency and relevance into their businesses.

I think there was a time when companies could raise and raise and raise and spend and spend and spend, and the view was that, you know, at some point in the future, investors would be able to recoup that investment, right? Because the IPO market was hot, we were seeing more mergers and acquisitions. That’s not the case now, right? So we need to see companies that are really strong in terms of what they’re offering to the market.

Mary Joseph leads Citi’s global investments in fintech and B2B SaaS startups, focusing on opportunities that enhance Treasury and Trade Solutions and broaden the bank’s technology ecosystem. Before her current role, she worked within Citi’s Investment Banking fintech M&A advisory team and also served as a venture investor at GreenHouse Capital, where she focused on early-stage fintech innovation across Africa and the Middle East. She holds an MBA from The Wharton School and a BA from Columbia University.

Citi is a strategic player in fintech investment. Through its strategic investments arm, Citi aims to partner with companies that complement its core banking and corporate finance services, while also helping startups gain access to enterprise scale and regulated banking capabilities.


Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko

SoFi Launches SoFiUSD Stablecoin, But Could it Actually be a Tokenized Deposit?

SoFi Launches SoFiUSD Stablecoin, But Could it Actually be a Tokenized Deposit?
  • SoFi has launched SoFiUSD, a fully reserved US dollar token issued by SoFi Bank, positioning itself as a stablecoin infrastructure provider for banks, fintechs, and enterprises seeking faster, always-on settlement.
  • Although branded as a stablecoin, SoFiUSD’s cash-only backing and on-demand redemption model place it closer to a tokenized bank deposit.
  • SoFi’s approach aligns more closely with JPMorgan’s JPM Coin than with non-bank stablecoins like KlarnaUSD, underscoring a growing divide between bank-issued tokenized deposits and fintech-issued stablecoins as programmable money adoption grows.

Lending and wealth management fintech SoFi is entering the stablecoin market today. The San Francisco-based lending and wealth management company has launched SoFiUSD, a fully reserved US dollar token issued by SoFi Bank.

The new tool blurs the line between a traditional stablecoin and a tokenized bank deposit. The distinction between these two terms matters, as banks and fintechs are increasingly taking different approaches to bringing regulated money onto blockchain rails.

SoFiUSD will allow SoFi, an OCC-regulated insured depository institution, to serve as a stablecoin infrastructure provider for banks, fintechs, and enterprise platforms with an aim to streamline operations with the faster and more efficient money movement that stablecoins offer. SoFi’s new stablecoin will enable partners to leverage SoFi’s framework to issue white-labeled stablecoins or integrate SoFiUSD into their own settlement flows.

SoFiUSD will be used for:

  • Settling SoFi’s crypto trading business
  • Offering third parties such as card networks, retailers, or businesses faster, safer settlement 24/7
  • Powering SoFi Pay for international remittances and point-of-sale purchases
  • Serving as an alternative form of payment for Galileo’s partners
  • Acting as a secured dollar-denominated asset for companies operating in countries with volatile currencies

“Blockchain is a technology super cycle that will fundamentally change finance, not just in payments, but across every area of money,” said SoFi CEO Anthony Noto. “With SoFiUSD, we’re using the infrastructure we’ve built over the last decade and applying it to real-world challenges in financial services. Companies today struggle with slow settlement, fragmented providers, and unverified reserve models. SoFi is helping address these gaps by combining our regulatory strength as a national bank with transparent, fully reserved on-chain technology to provide a safer and more efficient way for partners to move funds.”

While SoFi is calling SoFiUSD a stablecoin, its reserve model acts more like a tokenized deposit. That’s because the token is fully backed by cash held at SoFi Bank and redeemable on demand, representing bank deposits on-chain. This structure removes liquidity and credit risk and positions SoFiUSD as regulated bank money rather than a crypto instrument.

SoFi may be using the term “stablecoin” for three reasons. The first is market familiarity, as the term “stablecoin” is more widely recognized than tokenized deposits. The second is regulatory ambiguity, since US regulators have yet to formally define how tokenized deposits should be treated. The third is interoperability, with “stablecoin” indicating compatibility with today’s on-chain payment rails.

By launching what is effectively a tokenized deposit, SoFi joins a small but growing group of regulated banks experimenting with blockchain-based bank money, most notably JPMorgan Chase, which launched JPM Coin in November. Like JPM Coin, SoFiUSD keeps reserves inside the banking system and uses on-chain rails to modernize settlement rather than to create a parallel form of money.

The tokenized deposits approach stands in contrast to KlarnaUSD, Klarna’s recently announced stablecoin, which is issued by a non-bank and backed by reserves held outside the issuer’s balance sheet. While KlarnaUSD is designed to improve payments efficiency for cross-border commerce, SoFiUSD’s approach leverages a bank charter to embed stablecoins directly into deposits, lending, and treasury workflows.

As banks and fintechs experiment with programmable money, the distinction between bank-issued tokenized deposits and non-bank stablecoins may prove critical in determining which models scale beyond payments into the core of financial services.


Photo by Dawid Sokołowski on Unsplash

Visa Launches USDC Settlement in the US

Visa Launches USDC Settlement in the US
  • Visa has launched USDC stablecoin settlement in the US, enabling issuers and acquirers to settle transactions in Circle’s dollar-denominated stablecoin using blockchain infrastructure.
  • Cross River Bank and Lead Bank are piloting the capability to deliver faster, always-on settlement and improved treasury efficiency while remaining compatible with existing payment rails.
  • The move signals stablecoins’ shift from experimentation to bank-ready infrastructure.

Visa unveiled today that it has launched stablecoin settlement in the United States. The payments giant is partnering with Circle’s USDC dollar-denominated stablecoin to enable US issuers and acquirers to settle with Visa in USDC.

USDC settlement relies on blockchains to offer issuers faster money movement and seven‑day settlement windows that will improve both speed and liquidity, modernized treasury management with automated treasury operations, and interoperability between traditional payment rails and blockchain-based payments.

“Visa is expanding stablecoin settlement because our banking partners are not only asking about it— they’re preparing to use it,” said Visa’s Global Head of Growth Products and Strategic Partnerships Rubail Birwadker. “Financial institutions are looking for faster, programmable settlement options that integrate seamlessly with their existing treasury operations. By bringing USDC settlement to the US, Visa is delivering a reliable, bank‑ready capability that improves treasury efficiency while maintaining the security, compliance, and resiliency standards our network requires.”

Piloting the launch are Cross River Bank and Lead Bank, which are leveraging the Solana blockchain to settle with Visa in USDC. Visa is planning broader availability in the US in 2026. Cross River Bank, a leading infrastructure provider that offers embedded financial solutions, reinforces the importance of true interoperability. “Fintech and crypto innovators increasingly ask us to bring stablecoins into their existing product suite,” said Gilles Gade, Founder, President and CEO of Cross River. “A unified platform that natively supports both stablecoins and traditional payment networks is the foundation for how value will move globally. As one of the first US banks to enable USDC settlement with Visa, we’re demonstrating how a tech-forward, deeply integrated banking partner can connect blockchain networks and legacy systems at scale.”

Today’s announcement comes the same week that Visa Consulting & Analytics launched its Stablecoins Advisory Practice to offer education and guidance on market fit and implementation. VyStar Credit Union and Pathward are early participants in the program, which they will use to find new opportunities in the $250 billion stablecoin market.

Visa, which became one of the first major payment networks to settle in stablecoins in 2023, has been positioning itself at the forefront of the stablecoin revolution. Last month, the company’s monthly stablecoin settlement volume passed a $3.5 billion annualized run rate threashold.

Visa’s move to bring USDC settlement to the US shows that the early momentum in stablecoin activity this year is set to continue into next year as the payment rail moves from experimental to a bank-ready settlement tool. By embedding stablecoin settlement directly into its network, Visa is making programmable, always-on settlement a practical option for traditional banks seeking to improve liquidity management, shorten settlement cycles, and bridge existing payment rails with blockchain infrastructure.


Photo by Jonathan Borba