Real Estate Finally Meets the Chain: the Better and Coinbase Partnership
Hey FinTech Fanatic!
A token‑backed, conforming mortgage has entered the U.S. market, marking a new development for FinTech.
Better and Coinbase have partnered to launch the first conforming mortgage where borrowers can pledge Bitcoin or USDC instead of a traditional cash down payment.
This means that turning digital assets into real‑estate collateral without forcing a taxable sale is now a possibility.
The collaboration will allow building on top of Fannie Mae’s conforming‑loan framework, using custody‑grade infrastructure and familiar underwriting rules. That framework gives regulators and investors comfort, while still letting crypto‑wealthy borrowers keep their stacks on‑chain.
Coinbase is increasingly positioning itself as a rails layer for the “tokenized everything” stack, while neobank‑style lenders like Better provide the compliant origination and servicing layer.
Could this structure (on‑chain collateral, off‑chain loan terms, and GSE‑style backing) be cloned across consumer credit, SME finance, and even cross‑border mortgages in the coming years?
And here’s what else you need to know from the industry today. Scroll down.
Cheers,
INSIGHTS
📈 dLocal has announced its financial results for the fourth quarter ended December 31, 2025.
FINTECH NEWS
🇨🇦 Wealthsimple joins prediction markets fray as Canada opens up. Wealthsimple said it has received approval from the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization to offer trading in contracts tied to economic indicators, financial markets, and climate data.
PODCAST RECOMMENDATION
🎤 Scaling Without Illusions with Nikolay Popandopulo by DashDevs. In episode 137 of FinTech Garden, Igor Tomych speaks with Nikolay Popandopulo, CPO of Kaspi.kz’s eGrocery division, about what it really takes to scale a FinTech to top-tier performance. The conversation goes beyond technology, focusing on the practical realities and strategic decisions behind building a highly profitable FinTech business. Watch the full podcast here
Scaling Without Illusions with Nikolay Popandopulo by DashDevs
PAYMENTS NEWS
🇬🇭 Mastercard on Ghana’s digital payments growth and the future of inclusion. Mastercard is reinforcing its presence in the country by opening an office in Accra and introducing tools like contactless and QR payments, while also promoting financial inclusion, reflecting growing trust and adoption of digital finance across the country.
🇷🇺 Russia’s Central Bank considers it premature to confirm financial transactions via MAX. The Bank of Russia has received a letter from the NFMC regarding the confirmation of remote financial transactions. The regulator said that it considers it premature to "consider the implementation of the initiative of mandatory confirmation of expression of will through MAX in relation to the financial industry".
🇺🇸 Visa launches Enhanced Subscription Manager. The solution helps issuers respond to consumer demand by offering a consolidated, easy-to-integrate solution that elevates the user experience. Issuers can give cardholders greater subscription visibility, easy payment switching methods, and cancellation capabilities, all without leaving their banking app.
FINTECH RUNNING CLUB
🇬🇧 FRC London x FinTech Fringe on April 15th: 5km, good people, and a pint at The Green after. RSVP and come run with us!
DIGITAL BANKING NEWS
🇨🇭 Revolut is aiming for a Swiss banking license. British FinTech Revolut is exploring plans to obtain its own banking license in Switzerland, favouring this approach over opening a foreign branch or acquiring a local bank. Additionally, the firm plans to base 40% of its global workforce in India by 2026. The new positions will span product development, support functions, and financial services functions such as payment processing and fraud investigations.
🌍 Revolut projects profits of €1.5 billion in 2025. It has gained 580,000 customers in Portugal. The FinTech company reached 2.1 million customers in December, a 35% increase, above the 30% average of other markets where the company operates. Also, Revolut retail clients in Bulgaria grew up 27% in 2025, and 12% in Romania. The momentum reflects broader global expansion, with total users hitting 68.3 million and revenues climbing to $6 billion in 2025.
🇳🇿 Revolut posts USD $2.3b profit, 99% NZ revenue growth. Revenue in the market rose 99% year on year, card payments increased 115%, subscriptions revenue grew 344%, and wealth revenue doubled. Additionally, Revolut Singapore stays profitable in 2025 as subscription revenue jumps 75%. Revolut Singapore’s retail customer base expanded by more than 20 percent in 2025, while its business customer base grew fivefold.
🇺🇸 VALT Bank gets a conditional OCC charter. The bank must raise $25 million before opening and maintain a 9% tier 1 leverage ratio for its first three years thereafter. The newcomer will serve “digitally demanding” small to midsize businesses with $2 million to $10 million in sales.
🇬🇧 Tide launches easy access Cash ISA for sole traders. For sole traders, the launch adds a personal savings product to a platform best known for business services. Users can hold and manage a cash ISA in the same app they use for day-to-day business finances.
BLOCKCHAIN/CRYPTO NEWS
🇺🇸 Better and Coinbase launch the first token-backed, conforming mortgage. Americans who qualify for a mortgage with Better will now be able to pledge Bitcoin or USDC as collateral to fund their cash down payment, securing a standard conforming mortgage without liquidating tokenized assets or potentially triggering a taxable event.
🇺🇸 Revolut crosses $1.2B in on-chain transactions on Polygon, highlighting the efficiency of blockchain for cross-border payments. With near-instant settlement and ultra-low fees, Polygon has become a key network for Revolut’s on-chain activity, offering a significant cost advantage over traditional systems.
🇧🇭 Trust Wallet is launching a toolkit that enables AI agents to swap and trade crypto across more than 25 blockchains. The system offers both automated wallet setups with predefined guardrails and a user-approved mode, bringing agent-driven functionality to self-custody wallets.
PARTNERSHIPS
🌍 Mastercard and Scale aim to advance card issuance enablement for FinTechs. This collaboration introduces a unified integration capability designed to help innovators bring virtual and physical card programmes to market more efficiently, reducing the complexity traditionally associated with launching issuing services.
🇮🇳 Porter partners with Incognia to eliminate multi-account order abuse, ensuring fairness and reliability across India's goods transport network. The solution has reduced thousands of overlapping fraudulent orders daily, enhancing customer experience while supporting more equitable earnings and sustainability in logistics.
🇬🇧 B2C Distribution has partnered with Ecommpay to enhance its checkout experience with a faster, more flexible payment solution. The collaboration simplifies its payment infrastructure, improving visibility, control, and customer experience to support future e-commerce growth.
🇫🇷 Nickel collaborates with European Payments Initiative (EPI) to integrate Wero into its app. This integration offers customers a simple, instant, and fully European payment method. At a time when strengthening European payment sovereignty is a key priority, Nickel is providing access to a money transfer solution designed and operated entirely within Europe.
🇺🇸 Shopware and Balance partner to enable flexible B2B payments for Shopware merchants in North America. Through this partnership, Shopware merchants can integrate Balance directly into checkout and buyer portals to offer and manage their pay-by-invoice and B2B BNPL programs online, without building internal credit, billing, or collections operations.
DONEDEAL FUNDING NEWS
🇮🇪 Repeat founders raise $5m for new AI payments startup Grand. The plan is for Grand to use its expanding trust network to power a global payment network where businesses could extend credit, move money, and transact within a trusted ecosystem.
🌎 Tazapay's Series B reaches $36m as Circle Ventures leads extension to scale global payment infrastructure. The capital will go toward licensing expansion across new jurisdictions to unlock high-growth corridors, go-to-market acceleration across Asia, LATAM, the Middle East, and the Americas, and the buildout of agentic payment infrastructure.
🇸🇬 Startale raises US$63m Series A from SBI to expand on-chain financial infrastructure. Startale will use the proceeds to scale infrastructure, expand stablecoin adoption, and develop applications across institutional and consumer use cases.
🇺🇸 Foreign exchange startup XFX raises $17 million to help businesses go between cash and stablecoins. The Miami-headquartered startup XFX aims to make the foreign exchange process more efficient for fiat and stablecoins. Continue reading
🇧🇷 UnblockPay has raised $4.5 million in a seed round. This round will help the company expand its operations, accelerate product development, and strengthen its regulatory and compliance strategy. Read more
🇬🇧 Theia Insights grabs $8M to map the global economy with AI. The funding will support expansion into new asset classes, starting with private markets, alongside further development of research and engineering capabilities and the growth of the company’s global commercial presence.
M&A
🇧🇷 Nubank is one of the companies interested in acquiring Banco Caixa Geral Brasil. The potential acquisition could help Nubank strengthen its position in Brazil and support its broader strategy of expanding into a fully licensed global banking player.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
🇳🇿 Airwallex appoints Sir Bill English as Chair of the New Zealand Board, strengthening its local presence as the company continues to scale regulated financial infrastructure for businesses operating domestically and globally. Sir Bill joins the board as an independent director, bringing deep experience in public finance, economic policy, and international trade.
🇮🇹 Nexi's longtime CEO, Paolo Bertoluzzo, steps down. Italian payments group Nexi said it has appointed insider Bernardo Mingrone as Group Chief Executive Officer, succeeding Paolo Bertoluzzo, who is stepping down after a decade in the role.
🇬🇧 Funding Circle appoints ex-Monzo exec Tim Trailor as Managing Director, Cards. Tim joins the leadership team to spearhead the continued growth and innovation of Funding Circle’s credit card solutions for small businesses. Read more
🇺🇸 X hires a Coinbase vet, Benji Taylor, ahead of X Money launch. The move supports Elon Musk’s vision for X Money, a super app feature set to offer P2P payments, banking-like services, and more across the U.S. Keep reading
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