FinTech
Robinhood’s 175% rally this year is best among U.S. tech stocks
As Robinhood investors await second-quarter earnings, expectations are sky-high. The online broker, known for popularizing stock and crypto trading with young investors, has seen its shares surge 177% this year, outpacing all other U.S. tech companies valued at $5 or more, excluding those that went public in 2025. The next best performer is Palantir, up […]
Read More
Why Revolut’s journey to become a UK bank is taking so long
Key Points Revolut was granted a banking license with restrictions in July 2024 from the U.K.’s Prudential Regulation Authority (PRA). A year on, the fintech giant is still in a “mobilization” phase which limits the amount of customer deposits it can hold. Analysts say there are a number of reasons why Revolut’s authorization process is taking […]
Read More
Anthropic in talks to raise fresh capital at $170 billion valuation
Anthropic is in talks to raise between $3 billion and $5 billion in a funding round led by Iconiq Capital that would value the artificial intelligence startup at $170 billion, CNBC has confirmed. The OpenAI competitor has been reeling in billions of dollars at a rapidly increasing valuation reflecting investors’ thirst for a piece in […]
Read More
Cash App opens up to Apple Pay and Google Pay for the first time
Cash App’s new Pools feature lets users set a group funding goal, name the pool, and invite contributors. Courtesy: Cash App Cash App is going on the offensive in peer-to-peer payments. The Block-owned payments platform on Tuesday unveiled Pools, a new peer-to-peer feature designed to make group payments simple. It’s the company’s first major P2P […]
Read More
PayPal beats on earnings, raises full-year outlook as Venmo growth accelerates
PayPal reported better-than-expected results for the second quarter and raised its full-year guidance for transaction margin dollars and earnings per share. The stock slipped more than 4% following the report. Here’s how the company did compared with Wall Street estimates, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG: Earnings per share: $1.40 adjusted vs. $1.30 expected […]
Read More
JPMorgan says fintech middlemen like Plaid are ‘massively taxing’ its systems with unnecessary pings
Key Points JPMorgan Chase said that the fintech middlemen that have helped a new generation of financial apps connect with traditional checking accounts are flooding the bank’s systems with unnecessary data requests. Of 1.89 billion data requests from middlemen hitting its systems in June, only 13% were initiated by a customer for transactions, according to […]
Read More
Estonia’s tech elite are getting behind a European challenger to Robinhood
Key Points European investing app Lightyear is set to announce that it’s raised $23 million in a funding round led by NordicNinja. A host of Estonia’s top tech entrepreneurs — including ride-hailing unicorn Bolt’s CEO Markus Villig — also invested in the company. Lightyear also debuted several AI features, including one that lets users see […]
Read More
AI startups raised $104 billion in first half of year, but exits tell a different story
In this photo illustration, Claude AI logo is seen on a smartphone and Anthropic logo on a pc screen. (Photo Illustration by Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) Sopa Images | Lightrocket | Getty Images OpenAI and Anthropic continue to lead a fundraising bonanza in artificial intelligence, raising historic rounds and stratospheric valuations. But when […]
Read More
Telegram’s crypto wallet goes live to its 87 million U.S. users
Telegram users in the U.S. can now send, receive, and manage cryptocurrency directly inside the app — no downloads, extensions, or separate logins required. TON Wallet is built into Telegram’s interface and is beginning its U.S. rollout this week. It is a self-custodial crypto wallet in which a user controls their own private keys. The […]
Read More
Block’s stock pops on addition to S&P 500
The logo for the U.S. tech firm Block is displayed and reflected in numerous digital screens in London, England, on March 3, 2023. Leon Neal | Getty Images Block shares jumped 7% on Monday after S&P Global said the company will join the S&P 500, replacing Hess, which was acquired by Chevron for $54 billion. […]
Read More