EasyJet Founder Wants to Make Bitcoin… Easy
Hi FinTech Fanatic,
Remember when Stelios Haji-Ioannou shook up European skies with EasyJet? ✈️
Now he wants to do the same in crypto.
The EasyJet founder just unveiled EasyBitcoin—his latest “easy” venture (yes, right next to gyms, hotels, storage, and even pet travel 🐾). Teaming up with Uphold, Stelios is gunning to slash sky-high trading fees, he says are holding crypto back.
His playbook hasn’t changed much since the 90s: find an industry full of fat margins, slap on the orange “easy” brand, and promise a cheaper, fairer alternative. The question is—can he pull off in crypto what he did in aviation?
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Cheers,
PODCAST
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Partnerships Transforming Payments
FINTECH NEWS
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PAYMENTS NEWS
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🇮🇪 AIB, Bank of Ireland, and PTSB will launch Zippay early next year, a person-to-person mobile payment service that will be available to the retail banks’ 5m customers. Service on banks’ apps will allow customers to send, request, and split payments using contacts' mobile numbers.
🇩🇪 PayPal stumbles during reboot, and security chaos endangers trust. A programming error crippled millions of customer accounts in Germany, and banks stopped transactions worth billions. A piece of code was lost during an update, and security filters were disabled for several hours.
🇧🇷 Pix breaks two records in a single day. Pix broke a new record for transactions, according to the Central Bank: there were 290 million transactions. The previous record was in June of this year, with 276.7 million transactions. Read more
🇨🇦 Corpay cross-order named the Official FX Partner of the International Tennis Federation. Through this partnership, the ITF will be able to use Corpay Cross-Border’s innovative solutions to help mitigate foreign exchange exposure in its daily operations.
REGTECH NEWS
🇨🇦 Wealthsimple says personal client data accessed in security breach. The firm said a recent cybersecurity breach exposed sensitive client information, including Social Insurance Numbers and account numbers, and that the breach was linked to a compromised software package built by a trusted third-party vendor.
🇳🇿 ANZ pays $1.9 million fine in New Zealand and admits law breach. The Melbourne-based firm will pay NZ$3.25 million ($1.9 million) for the breaches that occurred between December 2012 and May 2023. ANZ has made remediation payments to all impacted current and past customers, the statement said.
🇺🇸 Navro acquires money transmitter licence in Washington, D.C. The license underscores Navro’s focus on operating within the most robust regulatory frameworks and delivering the highest levels of compliance required by ambitious international businesses.
DIGITAL BANKING NEWS
🇬🇷 Greek neobank Snappi goes live. Headquartered in Ioannina, Snappi has been designed from the ground up to be 100% digital. The mobile-only bank offers free account opening through a digital onboarding process. Customers can open an account in minutes, complete a fast KYC check, and begin banking immediately.
🇸🇮 Slovenia as Revolut's black sheep. Slovenia is the only EU country blocked on Revolut’s U.S. platform, likely due to regulatory or technical issues. While Revolut works normally in the EU, Slovenian users can't send or receive U.S. transfers and must use alternatives for now.
🇬🇧 Balderton Capital sells about $1 billion worth of Revolut shares. The European venture capital firm has offloaded about $1 billion in recent deals, the report said. Separately, Revolut has launched a tender offer to repurchase up to 10% of its shares from eligible investors at $865.42 apiece.
BLOCKCHAIN/CRYPTO NEWS
🇪🇺 EU Stablecoins Landscape - August 2025.
🇺🇸 EasyJet founder adds crypto trading to his cut-price empire. The billionaire’s EasyGroup Ltd is set to launch EasyBitcoin this month after agreeing a brand licensing deal with a regulated trading platform called Uphold. EasyGroup will help fund the marketing.
🇺🇸 Paxos proposes a Hyperliquid-first stablecoin and allocates yield to HYPE buybacks. According to the announcement, 95% of interest earned from USDH reserves would be used to buy back Hyperliquid’s native token HYPE, redistributing it to users, validators, and partner protocols.
🇧🇷 AEON Pay launches crypto scan-to-pay with PIX QR code in Brazil. Brazilian users can now simply scan merchants' PIX QR codes and complete purchases with their crypto assets, and AEON automatically settles the payment to merchants in Brazilian Real (BRL) via PIX, the nation's instant payment network.
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan launches pilot for USD-pegged stablecoin payments. By leveraging stablecoins, the regulator aims to enhance the efficiency and transparency of financial settlements while testing the risks and benefits of integrating digital assets into formal regulatory frameworks.
🇺🇸 Crypto asset manager CoinShares to go public in the US Via a SPAC Deal. The deal values CoinShares at $1.2 billion pre-money on a pro-forma basis, according to a company statement. CoinShares is best known for its crypto exchange-traded products and has about $10 billion in assets under management.
PARTNERSHIPS
🇬🇧 Elliptic powers risk intelligence for BVNK’s Layer1, enabling stablecoin payments, trading, and settlement at scale. Customers gain real-time, multi-asset wallet screening across any cryptoasset with tradable value, from stablecoins to ERC-20 tokens and major networks like Bitcoin and Ethereum.
🇺🇸 equipifi joins Jack Henry to expand BNPL access for banks. The collaboration highlights the increasing significance of BNPL as a vital component of digital banking transformation, aligning with financial institutions’ efforts to provide innovative, customer-centric solutions.
DONEDEAL FUNDING NEWS
💰 Wondering who has driven investment in cross-border payments leading companies?
🇺🇸 WealthTech firm Dispatch raises $18M in Series A. The fresh capital will be channelled into accelerating the development of agentic workflows and AI-driven data orchestration. By connecting clean, real-time data, Dispatch allows advisors to harness AI for accurate insights and the automation of complex processes.
🇺🇸 Stripe challenger Rainforest lands $29M Series B. Rainforest bills itself as a “payments-as-a-service” provider. Put simply, it aims to help vertical software companies enable payment processing for their merchants. Keep reading
🇺🇸 Spinwheel secures strategic investment from Citi Ventures to accelerate the future of the consumer credit ecosystem. The funding will support Spinwheel’s continued go-to-market growth, expand its agentic AI platform, and build out its data sets and product offerings.
🇸🇬 Zug FinTech secures 1 million francs from Singapore powerhouse. Recoveris will use the funding to accelerate the development of its AI-enhanced blockchain investigation management system. Read more
M&A
🇬🇧 Lloyds closes in on £120M takeover of FinTech Curve. The financial services giant believes Curve's digital wallet platform will be a valuable asset amid growing regulatory pressure on Apple to open its payment services to rivals. Curve is a provider of digital wallet technology.
🇺🇸 Aiwyn acquires QuickFee's US payments business. This strategic partnership strengthens Aiwyn Payments' positioning as a leading payments and collection platform for technology-driven accounting firms. Through its partnership with QuickFee, Aiwyn is further expanding its product suite.
🇳🇱 Amsterdam-based Aplauz closes sale of its Dutch EMI arm to Singapore’s WSPN. The FinTech company announced the sale of its Aplauz NL, a licensed Dutch Electronic Money Institution (EMI), to WSPN (Worldwide Stablecoin Payment Network), a global digital payments company.
🇪🇸 BBVA opens €14.8bn bid to Banco Sabadell shareholders as Madrid imposes three-year merger freeze. The offer comprises one newly issued BBVA share plus €0.70 in cash for every 5.5483 Sabadell shares. BBVA now expects €900 million in annual synergies in 2029, up from a previous €850 million target.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
🇨🇭 Yuh appoints AI Persona Fin as Switzerland’s First AI CEO. Fin is an AI personality developed with ChatGPT and designed with tools such as Midjourney and HeyGen. Markus Schwab, who has served as CEO of Yuh since 2021, formally introduced Fin.
🇺🇸 Marqeta announces appointment of Mike Milotich as CEO. “After completing a thorough search, the Board determined that Mike is the right CEO for Marqeta. With Mike at the helm, Marqeta is well-positioned to execute our strategy and deliver long-term value for our shareholders,” said Judson C. Linville, Chair of the Marqeta Board.
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