Ripple’s $5 Billion Bid for Circle Falls Short

Ripple’s $5 Billion Bid for Circle Falls Short
Ripple’s $5 Billion Bid for Circle Falls Short

Hey FinTech Fanatic!

It is a rare moment when two major forces in stablecoins quietly step into each other’s path. Ripple reportedly made an offer to acquire Circle Internet Group Inc. for $4 billion to $5 billion — a bid that Circle declined, calling it too low, according to people familiar with the matter.

Ripple, best known for its RLUSD stablecoin launched in December, has not yet ruled out making another proposal. Circle, meanwhile, is charting its own course. Last month, it filed for an IPO, choosing to focus on advancing that plan rather than exploring acquisition talks.

“We do not comment on market rumors,” a spokesperson for Circle said in an emailed statement. “As we are currently in a quiet period with the SEC, we cannot comment further on our corporate financial plans. Our long-term goals remain the same.”

The backdrop to these moves is a quickening pace of crypto dealmaking, fueled by rising token values and renewed interest in public listings. Circle’s USDC stablecoin currently holds a market value of $61.7 billion, compared to Ripple’s RLUSD at $316.9 million. Ripple’s appetite for expansion has already been visible this year with its $1.25 billion agreement to acquire prime-brokerage Hidden Road.

Read more global FinTech industry updates below 👇 and I'll be back with more on Monday!

Cheers,

Marcel


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FINTECH NEWS

🇬🇧 Double shortlisting for Ecommpay at FinTech Awards London. Ecommpay and The Money Platform have been selected as finalists for the Best FinTech Collaboration of the Year category, This nomination highlights the success of Ecommpay’s solution. Additionally, it has been named a finalist in the PayTech Company of the Year category, this nomination recognises Ecommpay's outstanding contributions to the payments technology sector.

🇳🇬 CBN fined Paystack ₦250 million over Zap operations for allegedly operating its newly launched consumer product, Zap by Paystack, as a wallet, violating its regulatory licence. The CBN fine comes during heightened regulatory scrutiny for Nigerian FinTechs.

🇺🇸 Interactive Brokers is to pay a $400k fine for alleged violations of FINRA rules. From January 2020 through at least June 2022, the multinational failed to report accurate statistical and summary information regarding written customer complaints to FINRA.

🇺🇸 Robinhood revenues fall 9% QoQ in Q1 2025. The results for Q1 2025 were not quite as good as the previous quarter, but still very impressive from a historical perspective. Robinhood reported Revenues of $927 million (-9% QoQ) and Net Profit of $336 million (-63%) in Q1 2025.

🇺🇸 Robinhood stock slips on report that Morgan Stanley to offer crypto trading. Following a report that Morgan Stanley is planning to add cryptocurrency trading to its E*Trade platform. Robinhood could face increased competition if big banks make a push into crypto trading.

🇬🇧 Revolut rebuffs investors. The company recently rejected investor interest that would have given it around a $65 billion valuation. It required the company's go-ahead, which Revolut denied. The neobank was last valued at $45 billion via a 2024 secondary sale. Read more

🇺🇸 Fiserv processes the first card-based payment transactions under a special bank charter. This allows the acquirer to have a more significant financial stake in processing debit and credit card transactions for merchants, as it saves money on the bank fees that would be paid to banking partners. 

🇬🇧 Square expands banking services to give sellers better control of their cash flow. Square Savings accounts now feature new personalized savings recommendations to make it easy for sellers to organize their funds into folders for key expenses like taxes and supplies.

🇮🇳 Amazon injects $41m into Amazon Pay India to boost FinTech push. Amazon Pay is seeking to expand its presence in India’s competitive digital payments sector, adding services like bill payments, ticket bookings, insurance premium payments, and BNPL options.

🇦🇪 Daleel adds Binance crypto to finance marketplace in MENA. The partnership allows Daleel to display the top 10 trading pairs from Binance by offering access to digital asset information next to traditional financial products. The move aims to reflect evolving consumer preferences in the region.

🇬🇧 Tide expands availability of credit product to all UK small business members. Credit Flex is a short-term credit facility integrated into the Tide app that gives eligible Tide members instant access to credit of up to £5,000. access to credits up to £5,000.


PAYMENTS NEWS

🇨🇴 Colombia will launch Bre-B, a new real-time and interoperable payment system. The platform, integrated into existing banking apps and websites, will enable 24/7 instant payments using unique identifiers. ACI Worldwide has been selected as the technology provider for interoperability services, supplying the infrastructure to support seamless real-time transactions

🇮🇳 No goods and services tax on UPI transactions over Rs 2000, clarifies the Ministry of Finance. The government remains committed to promoting digital payments via UPI and has implemented an incentive scheme to support small merchants and encourage wider adoption of digital payment methods. According to the ACI Worldwide Report 2024, India accounted for 49% of global real-time transactions in 2023.

🇺🇸 Stripe Radar protects ACH and SEPA payments. The tool analyzes a multitude of signals from Stripe's global network to assess risk and prevent fraud before it impacts businesses. This allows companies to maintain consistent fraud prevention measures across various payment methods.

🇺🇸 Visa unveils new era of commerce. Visa Intelligent Commerce enables AI to find and buy. It is a groundbreaking new initiative that opens Visa’s payment network to the developers and engineers building the foundational AI agents transforming commerce.

🇺🇸 PayPal brings together developers and AI leaders to power agentic commerce at Dev Days. Developers can now enable agentic AI experiences that allow customers to pay, track shipments, manage invoices, and more, all powered by PayPal and within an AI agent.

🇦🇺 Volt’s one-click PayTo payment solution is available to Shopify customers in Australia. Volt will be first-to-market on Shopify with a one-click checkout built on PayTo, a real-time payment system developed by the country’s New Payments Platform in 2022.

🇸🇮 Bankart chooses Iliad Solutions in multi-year payment testing deal. Through this new partnership with Iliad, Bankart has the opportunity to access the capabilities of t3. This helps drive Bankart’s payment capabilities and its position as a leading payments processor.


REGTECH NEWS

🇬🇧 Pexa achieves authorisation with the FCA. This will enable PEXA to facilitate c.70% of property transactions in England and Wales, with additional extensions to the product planned to increase this coverage further still. It also allows it to act as a third-party managed account provider to UK conveyancers for Sale & Purchase transactions.


DIGITAL BANKING NEWS

🇸🇦 BNY gets licence for Saudi regional HQ as global banks grow presence. The new regional headquarters in Riyadh will offer strategic, administrative, and corporate support for BNY's operations across the Middle East. Saudi Arabia's new rules mandate foreign firms to have regional headquarters in the kingdom before they can access lucrative government contracts.

🇦🇺 Westpac online banking suffers a glitch and apologises after customers are left frustrated. Customers have vented their frustration on social media after the bank’s digital services failed this morning, leaving people unable to pay bills or use some services. Nearly two hours later, Westpac said it was resolved.


BLOCKCHAIN/CRYPTO NEWS

🇺🇸 ​Coinbase has reintroduced Bitcoin-backed loans in the U.S., offering customers the ability to borrow up to $100,000 in USDC without selling their Bitcoin. The service is available to U.S. customers, excluding those in New York, and is expected to expand to other regions and collateral types in the future.

🇺🇸 Robinhood wants to win the wallet with a growing crypto push. Robinhood is diversifying its offerings beyond trading, launching products like an AI-powered assistant, a managed investment service, and expanding its premium Gold membership.

🇺🇸 Worldcoin rebrands as ‘World’ in shift to Digital ID and Payments. The move marks a strategic shift for the company, which had initially rolled out its controversial iris-scanning “orb” devices across international markets, citing regulatory resistance from the Biden administration.

🇺🇸 Charles Schwab gears up for spot crypto trading by next year. This move signals growing mainstream adoption of digital assets by traditional financial institutions. By entering the crypto space, Schwab aims to meet rising investor demand for easier access to cryptocurrencies.


PARTNERSHIPS

🇺🇸 Visa and Stripe’s Bridge partner to launch a platform allowing FinTechs to quickly start their stablecoin-linked card programs for customers. The platform will enable developers to launch card programs in multiple countries at once, starting with six countries in Latin America.

🇺🇸 Huma Finance pilots blockchain to modernise real-time payments. The collaboration with Visa strengthens the pilot program by combining Visa’s global payments expertise with Huma’s blockchain capabilities. This aims to reduce the delays and costs associated with traditional merchant payment processing.

🌍 Circle taps Onafriq to cut Africa’s cross-border payment costs with USDC. Circle aims to pilot USDC settlements within Onafriq’s vast network, which connects over 500 wallets and 200 million bank accounts. Meanwhile, Onafriq aims to simplify financial transactions for institutions and individuals, reduce costs, and strengthen trust.

🇺🇸 Rain and Visa partner to accelerate on-chain credit cards. Rain provides backend infrastructure, APIs, compliance layers, and settlement logic that enables FinTechs and wallets to build and launch stablecoin-linked card programs. Read more

🇺🇸 Stablecoin payments are available on Apple Pay through Mesh. This marks a public demonstration of the new capability, available later in Q2, that will enable merchants partnered with Mesh to accept crypto payments through Apple Pay without building their crypto infrastructure.

🇺🇸 World partners with Tinder, Visa to bring its ID-verifying tech to more places. The biometric ID company best known for its eyeball-scanning Orb devices announced several partnerships aimed at driving sign-ups and demonstrating the applications of its tech.


DONEDEAL FUNDING NEWS

🇺🇸 Sageview backs $30m Series B for WealthTech disruptor Zoe. The capital injection will be used to enhance the capabilities of Zoe’s Wealth Platform and to expand its internal team. Keep reading

🇦🇪 Fuze raises $12M from Galaxy and e& Capital to scale its digital assets infrastructure across MENA and Turkey. The Series A investment will fuel Fuze’s regional and international expansion, accelerate product innovation and compliance, and support top-tier hiring.

🇺🇸 Nuvo raises $45M to accelerate the future of B2B trade. With the new funding, Nuvo will deepen its reach across core markets such as alcohol and beverage, building materials, chemicals, food service, distribution, and manufacturing, while extending into new verticals.

🇹🇷 Revo Capital secures $86M for Turkish startups across sectors. The fund aims to empower Turkish engineer-founded startups by combining hands-on operational support with growth capital for high-potential Series A and B technology startups.​


M&A

🌎 Tether finalizes buying 70% of Adecoagro stake, securing tokenization ambition. Tether said it aims to help scale Adecoagro’s output while aligning the company with its mission of fostering “economic freedom” through decentralized finance and investment in underserved markets.

🇺🇸 Ripple offered $4B-$5B for stablecoin issuer Circle. The issuer of not just the XRP token, but also stablecoin RLUSD, Ripple, has made and was rejected in a buyout attempt of Circle, the issuer of the USDC stablecoin. Continue reading


MOVERS AND SHAKERS

🇬🇧 Revolut hires Merisa Lee Gimpel to lead supply chain finance division. Lee Gimpel joins from Lloyds Bank, where she has spent the past 11 months as managing director of client solutions and lending innovation. Before this, she spent five years with the bank in trade finance roles. 

🌏 Mambu expands APAC presence with key hires to drive regional growth. The new hires include: David Becker, Managing Director, Head of APAC Sales. Muhammad Irfan, Country Manager, Indonesia. Anjeanette Japor, BDM for the Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia. Patrick Menary, BDM for Australia and New Zealand. 


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