Stripe, Amazon & Walmart Dive Into Crypto 🪙
Future of Finance - Edition #167 (10th - 16th June‘ 25)
This week’s pulse? Built to flex. Flexible credit, intelligent spend tools, and global payments stitched together with intent.
This week proves finance isn’t just moving forward—it’s moving in every direction at once.
✔️ Credit meets customisation
✔️ Smarter pipes power scale
✔️ Engagement wins, loud and clear
Crack open what’s making waves right now »
Are Payment Cards the Next Protocol Layer?
What started as simple plastic now bridges fiat, crypto, and programmable value. Cards are evolving—fast—and what powers them is shifting beneath the surface.
In our latest visual, we unpack three distinct layers of this evolution:
💳 Traditional Debit Cards – Bank-linked and widely accepted
🪙 Crypto-Linked Cards – Wallet-driven with real-time conversion
🧾 Stablecoin-Linked Cards – Blockchain-settled, fiat-pegged spending tools
The way we spend is being rewritten—one swipe at a time.
👉 Dive into the full thing: The Evolution of Payment Cards
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What’s on the fintech menu today?
🌟 Fintech Fiesta: The Week's Hot 10!
🌐 ‘Byte’ Buzz: Fintech highlights, sorted by segment!
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This week’s drop is live — Edition #167 is laced with real-time rails, spiked with smart pivots, and smooth like embedded silk!
The Week's Hot 10!♨️🔟
Goals, Met and Scaled
⤷ TrueLayer surpasses 15 million active users in its consumer network, marking a major step forward in European adoption of Pay by Bank tools.
⤷ Stripe acquires crypto firm Privy, enhancing its cryptocurrency capabilities and strengthening its wallet infrastructure for multi-currency balance management.
Contextual Credit Reimagined
⤷ Allica Bank introduces a 'Bridge-to-Term' loan product, transitioning borrowers from a bridging loan to a term mortgage for greater flexibility.
⤷ Klarna teams up with Marqeta to launch a flexible debit card, letting users switch between immediate payments and installments with Visa-certified infrastructure.
Global Pipes, Local Ports
⤷ dLocal partners with Juspay to expand cross-border payment capabilities, integrating over 900 local and alternative payment methods across emerging markets.
⤷ Worldpay secures a business distribution channel with Santander UK, bringing its e-commerce and POS solutions to the bank’s business and corporate clients.
Product-Led Rewards Play
⤷ Coinbase to launch a credit card on the American Express network, offering 2–4% bitcoin rewards based on user holdings and platform tier.
⤷ Cardless unveils an embedded credit card platform with Coinbase, enabling brands to launch custom credit programs and spend-based benefits.
Smarter Interfaces, Sharper Insights
⤷ Starling Bank introduces an AI-powered 'Spending Intelligence' tool, to provide users with personalized spend insights via natural language queries.
⤷ Plumery integrates Salt Edge’s open banking gateway, enabling banks to deliver secure, real-time financial experiences built on enriched financial data.
Now, for the ‘byte’-sized fintech buzz –
Embedded finance is slipping into the background, in all the best ways, powering the moment you swipe, tap, or just think about paying.
inDrive launches the first fully embedded Pix payment experience in Brazil. This initiative integrates Brazil's instant payment system, Pix, directly into inDrive's platform, enabling seamless and efficient transactions for users within the app.
U.S. Bank and Fiserv create an integrated agent card issuance solution. The partnership empowers financial institutions to offer digital-first, branded credit card programs to consumers and small businesses.
Open Finance is done knocking - it’s letting itself in, rearranging the data furniture, and setting up faster flows for whoever’s ready.
Canadian fintech Flinks teamed with European Open Banking firm Trask to enhance Open Banking infrastructure in North America, providing ready-to-use solutions for data recipients to efficiently handle Open Banking data.
Plaid becomes the first to implement Cross River Bank’s Request for Payment (RfP) capability, enabling instant, secure inbound payments over the Real-Time Payments network, enhancing funding agility and user experience.
Digital finance is turning into your travel buddy - borderless, responsive, and ready wherever you tap in.
N26 launched "N26 Go," a travel-focused premium tier with global ATM withdrawals, travel insurance, lounge access, and partner perks, replacing its older "N26 You" plan.
UnionBank announced plans to boost digital banking with partner-led growth, AI-driven approvals, and platform integration post-Citi acquisition to scale customer reach and efficiency.
Fintech Infra is getting a brain upgrade: fewer wires and wait times, more thinking on its feet and scaling in its sleep.
Worldpay and Visa team up to enhance fraud prevention tools for merchants. This collaboration aims to improve Visa's 3D Secure solution, helping merchants reduce fraud, minimise false declines, and enhance customer experience.
Mambu and Avenga facilitate Marginalen Bank's core banking transformation through successful cloud migration. The collaboration transitioned Marginalen Bank from its legacy systems to Mambu's cloud-native platform, enhancing the bank's digital capabilities and operational efficiency.
Digital assets aren’t just playing in the sandbox anymore; they’re eyeing Main Street, suitcases packed with licenses and zero-friction ambitions.
Retail giants Walmart and Amazon are reportedly considering launching their own stablecoins or adopting existing ones to streamline payments and reduce reliance on traditional banking and credit card networks.
Coinbase and Gemini reportedly in line for EU crypto licenses under MiCA regulation, allowing them to offer services across all 27 EU member states.
And that's a wrap 👋
We hope you enjoyed this edition of the Weekly Fintech Brew!
As a reward for making it this far, enjoy a curated list of awesome fintech resources to keep your curiosity cuppa full to the brim. Cheers to continuous learning!
🔗 Link Up! –
Combating payments fraud in India’s digital payments landscape Report- PwC
APAC banks lead digital adoption, but branches aren’t going extinct yet Report- Kearney
Virtual Accounts: The Catalyst for Business Model Innovation in Corporate Banking Blog- Finacle
8 Ways AI is Reinventing the Fintech Landscape Blog- M2P Fintech
How 2025 Is Redrawing the Map of Digital Asset Finance Blog - WhiteSight
If you're someone who likes to read think pieces, you will likely love our monthly blog, Fintersections, where our team members analyse the convergence of fintech with the world.
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