Affirm’s Bank charter bid is really a 300 basis point bet 😎🏦; Yahoo’s AI Search play is smarter than it looks 🤖🌐; Mesh is the newest stablecoin unicorn 🪙🦄

FinTech is Eating the World, 28 January

Hey Everyone,

Good morning & happy Wednesday! Today’s issue is super hot as we’re looking into Affirm that’s about to become a bank (what’s the real strategy here & how it stacks againts the competition + bonus deep dives into the latest financials of Affirm, Klarna & PayPal Bank), Yahoo, which is now trying to replace ChatGPT (why their AI Scout is smarter than it looks, what’s the bigger play at stake here + bonus deep dive into Agentic Singularity inside), and Mesh that just became the latest stablecoin unicorn (what their $1B valuation truly tells us & what it means for the future of FinTech + bonus list of the ultimate stables resources inside). Let’s jump straight into the finnovative stuff 🌶️

Affirm’s Bank charter bid is really a 300 basis point bet 😎🏦

You die a FinTech, or live long enough to see yourself becoming a bank.

The news 🗞️ The Buy Now, Pay Later leader just told you exactly how it plans to compete with Klarna KLAR 0.00%↑. BNPL pioneer Affirm AFRM 0.00%↑ recently filed for a Nevada industrial loan company charter, joining PayPal PYPL 0.00%↑ (Utah, December 2025) in the fintech sprint toward deposit funding.

The math is straightforward here: Affirm currently funds loans through warehouse facilities at roughly 7%. Bank deposits cost 2-4%. That spread - call it 300-500 basis points - flows straight to margin on a loan portfolio that hit $6.5 billion in active balances 🤑

Let’s unpack this, see what it’s all about, and what’s next.