MrBeast bought a bank for pennies on the dollar. PayPal should be watching 🏦🐯; Gemini ditches 3 continents to save its balance sheet 👋🇪🇺; Stripe’s $140B price tag is an IPO replacement 🤑📈

FinTech is Eating the World, 10 February

Hey Everyone,

Good morning & happy Tuesday! Today’s issue is the best one yet as we’re diving into MrBeast who just acquired a teen-focused banking app Step (what’s the big plan here, why PayPal should be nervous and what to expect next), digital asset exchange Gemini that just ditched Europe, UK and Australia to save its balance sheet (what does it tell us and what’s next + bonus deep dive into Gemini’s latest financials & whether it’s worth yoru time and money), and Stipe, which is about to sell more of its shares at a whopping $140 billion valuation (how Stripe figured out how to be public without being public + bonus deep dive into fintech giant’s quest to become the financial backbone of AI-driven economy). Let’s jump straight into the fascinating stuff 🌶️

MrBeast bought a bank for pennies on the dollar. PayPal should be paying attention 🏦🐯

The news 🗞️ The most expensive thing in fintech isn’t technology. It’s acquiring a young customer who will stick around for decades. MrBeast just bought 7 million of them 😳

Beast Industries, the $5.2 billion company behind YouTube’s biggest creator, announced yesterday it acquired Step, a teen-focused banking app, for what market observers estimate was under $200 million. Step raised $175 million in equity at a roughly $920 million valuation in 2021, plus $300 million in debt. The markdown tells the fintech downturn story in miniature, but the buyer is what makes the deal interesting.

Let’s unpack this, understand what this deal is really all about, and what to expect next. Both for MrBeast venturing into finance, and the broader fintech space.