TLDR Fintech 2025-08-18

Klarna reported Q2 revenue up 20% year-over-year to $823 million, with adjusted operating profit of $29 million despite a wider net loss from restructuring costs. Active users jumped 31% to 111 million, while delinquency rates fell to 0.89%, signaling stronger consumer repayment trends. With market volatility easing, the BNPL giant is again weighing a U.S. IPO as soon as September, alongside new partnerships with Walmart, Stripe, and eBay.

Adyen shares plunged 17% after the Dutch payments firm reported weaker-than-expected earnings and lowered its 2025 revenue outlook. First-half net revenue rose 20% to €1.09B, but tariff disruptions and a weaker U.S. dollar hit growth, particularly among major Asia-Pacific retail clients. EBITDA rose 28% to €544M with a 50% margin, though still short of consensus, while processed volumes edged up just 5% and digital volumes fell 9%.

Current and former OpenAI employees are set to sell roughly $6 billion in shares to SoftBank, Dragoneer, and Thrive Capital in a secondary deal that would value the company at $500 billion, making it the world's most valuable startup, ahead of SpaceX. The sale comes on top of SoftBank's $40 billion commitment to OpenAI's ongoing funding round at a $300 billion valuation. With revenue expected to triple this year to $12.7 billion and GPT-5 recently launched, the deal gives employees liquidity while underscoring investor conviction in OpenAI's future growth.

Nubank added 4.1 million customers in Q2, bringing its total to 122.7 million, while revenue surged 40% year-over-year to $3.7 billion and net income rose 42% to $637 million. With monthly revenue per active customer at $12.20 versus just $0.80 cost to serve, the bank is delivering standout unit economics and an 83% activity rate. Growth remains concentrated in Brazil, while Mexico and Colombia lag, though product expansion across investments, credit, crypto, and loans is rapidly deepening engagement.

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev joined John Collison on a podcast for a wide-ranging conversation that covered everything from hoarding Bulgarian copper pots to how Michael Lewis misunderstood Flash Boys. Tenev pitched his vision to tokenize private company stocks (including Stripe), weighed in on retail investors' growing market influence, and shared what he'd do if he were SEC Chairman. The episode also touches on Robinhood's product roadmap, prediction markets, and Tenev's admiration for Frank Slootman.

Circle and potentially Stripe (with Paradigm) are heralding a new era in payments by building their own hyperscale infrastructure—much like AWS did for cloud computing—a move that could consolidate billing, wallets, and wallets for expenses into a universal system. This trend aligns with broader fintech shifts—stablecoins and AI—as legacy players like Adyen lag behind while others (e.g., Nubank) are thriving with or without crypto context. Standout fintech offerings such as Lava Payments, Tracelight, Casap, and Fiscal AI are examples of emergent innovation in the embedded payments and AI space.

A Revolut Pay checkout button has been spotted in the Booking.com mobile app during hotel reservations, signaling the fintech's continued push into mainstream travel and e-commerce payments. The integration highlights Revolut's strategy to scale its payments offering beyond its core banking app and into high-volume merchant platforms.

Google is rolling out a major refresh of Google Finance, adding AI-powered answers, advanced charting tools, and real-time news feeds. The platform now allows users to ask detailed financial questions and receive comprehensive responses with links, while new charts support indicators like moving averages and candlesticks. With expanded coverage of commodities and cryptocurrencies, Google is positioning the service as a stronger option to other finance sites or the use of AI chatbots for complex financial queries.

Stripe is quietly working on a payments-first, Ethereum-compatible Layer 1 blockchain named Tempo, aiming to balance control with developer-friendly openness. Tempo is designed to integrate seamlessly into Stripe's ecosystem and support stablecoin-driven commerce.

Coinbase's $2.5B trading volume on August 15 ranked it 25th among U.S. equities, as its acquisition of Deribit bolstered derivatives activity across spot, futures, perpetuals, and options. Deribit's $185B July volume and $30M in revenue highlight the deal's strategic impact, strengthening Coinbase's liquidity and institutional-grade infrastructure. Analysts say the move positions Coinbase to capture altcoin season momentum, with Ethereum already up 87% over the past 90 days amid expectations of Fed rate cuts.

Klarna has struck a multi-year agreement with U.S.financial services firm Nelnet, allowing Nelnet to purchase up to $26 billion of newly originated, short-term, interest‑free “Pay in 4” loans. The deal is designed to boost Klarna's growth in the U.S., freeing up scalable, off‑balance-sheet funding and potentially underpinning its long‑anticipated IPO ambitions.

Opendoor CEO Carrie Wheeler has stepped down, with Shrisha Radhakrishna named interim president while the board, aided by Spencer Stuart, searches for a permanent successor. The announcement sent shares up as much as 16%, continuing a meme-stock rally recently fueled by hedge fund manager Eric Jackson, who is pushing for a stronger AI strategy and board shake-up. Despite renewed investor enthusiasm, Wall Street remains cautious, with most analysts rating the stock hold or sell as the company struggles to recover from its 2022 downturn.

The Federal Reserve is retiring a specialized unit, launched in 2023 after the failures of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, that monitored banks' cryptocurrency and fintech activities.

Airbnb has added a “Reserve Now, Pay Later” option in the U.S. that lets travelers book select stays with no upfront payment.

An executive order signed by President Trump directs the U.S. Secretary of Labor to reassess fiduciary guidelines, possibly paving the way for 401(k) plans to include unconventional assets like cryptocurrency, private equity, and real estate.