TikTok Wants to Live in Your Wallet Too
Hey FinTech Fanatic!
Social media platforms really want to be your next wallet.
According to Bloomberg, TikTok is exploring a peer-to-peer payments feature inside its U.S. direct messages, letting users send money to each other without leaving the app.
Sound familiar? X has been pushing its own payments ambitions for a while now.
The playbook is converging: own the attention, then own the transaction.
With over a billion users globally, TikTok adding money transfers to DMs could be a massive distribution play: getting one step closer to become a Super App. Will this ever happen? Let me know your thoughts!
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Cheers,
INSIGHTS
💡 dLocal: Emerging Payments Across Latin America. dLocal’s July perspective looks at how payment habits differ across Chile, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Bolivia, showing how local infrastructure, consumer behavior, and trust shape digital payments across the region. It also covers dLocal’s latest partnerships and initiatives, including its collaboration with ACI Worldwide to bring local payment methods to global merchants. Read the full story here
💡 AppsFlyer: Inside Fintech Growth and Attribution. In this Q&A, Lesia Kupriienko, AppsFlyer’s Industry Lead for Finance, discusses how fintechs can connect marketing, product, and data around a shared view of ROI. She covers stablecoin infrastructure, fraud and growth collaboration, AI-driven efficiency, privacy constraints, customer re-engagement, web-to-app journeys, and why acquisition and retention should be treated as one growth strategy. One key takeaway: cheap CAC does not necessarily mean better growth — retention and LTV need to be part of the equation. Read the full interview here
PAYMENTS NEWS
🇺🇸 Mastercard CEO discusses stablecoins, AI agents, and the future of payments in a Motley Fool interview. Michael Miebach explains how Agent Pay brings trust and permissions to AI-driven transactions across card rails, A2A, and stablecoins.
🇺🇸 TikTok is exploring a feature to send money over direct messages, according to Bloomberg. The social platform is developing peer-to-peer payments within its U.S. app, potentially turning its DMs into a money transfer channel.
🇦🇺 Stripe Treasury launches in Australia, unifying payments and global money management. Businesses gain instant access to revenue and can hold funds in AUD, USD, GBP, and EUR, with instant conversion across 10 supported currencies.
🇸🇾 Syria approves creation of new electronic payment system. The central bank says the framework will expand digital payment options while keeping cash in use and opening the sector to FinTech investment.
🇻🇳 Vietnamese users can make QR payments with MoMo in over 60 markets. The e-wallet now covers more than 100 million merchant locations via connections with Alipay, WeChat Pay, PayPay and PromptPay, with no additional foreign currency fees charged.
🇩🇰 Danish payments firm Inpay hit with injunction over AML failings. Finanstilsynet barred Inpay from onboarding new iGaming customers after a March 2026 inspection found serious violations of the Money Laundering Act.
#FINTECHREPORT
🚨 Adyen’s processed volume reached €804 billion in H1 2026 🤯
And its push beyond payments is accelerating. Here are the key numbers 👇
AGENTIC COMMERCE
🇺🇸 Amazon Bedrock AgentCore payments is now generally available, enabling AI agents to transact autonomously at scale. Built with Coinbase and Stripe, the service lets agents pay for APIs and digital services using stablecoin wallets with built-in guardrails.
DIGITAL BANKING NEWS
🇬🇧 Monzo deploys backup bank in face of outage, activating contingency infrastructure to keep services running for customers. The neobank switched to its backup systems after its primary infrastructure experienced disruption. Monzo confirmed services remained available throughout, crediting the contingency setup for preventing a full outage. Read more
🇫🇮 Revolut applies for Finland bank branch to offer local IBANs for 250,000 customers. The move would let Revolut provide Finnish IBANs directly to its existing customer base in the country.
🇪🇸 Revolut targets eight million customers in Spain by year-end, adding payroll services and private banking. Spain is the neobank's second-largest EU market behind France, with over 6.5 million clients already onboarded.
🇵🇪 Revolut aims to launch operations in Peru between late 2027 and early 2028, according to CEO Julien Labrot. The British neobank operates in 40 countries and sees Peru as its next Latin American expansion market.
🇲🇾 Boost launches Boost SME, a digital business banking platform in Malaysia. New merchants get 3.0% daily interest on balances, same-day settlements, and instant financing for loans up to MYR 300,000.
ARTICLE OF THE DAY
💡 AppsFlyer: How to Reactivate Bank Customers at 5x Lower Cost. Banking acquisition averages $561 per customer, and 34% of new checking accounts go dormant within a year, yet most budgets still chase new prospects. AppsFlyer argues for behavioral rather than demographic segmentation, with real-time audience updates and automated syncing across 140+ ad platforms, all within GDPR and CCPA requirements. Read the full article here
Re-activate high-value users
BLOCKCHAIN/CRYPTO NEWS
🇺🇸 Coinbase CEO Armstrong says AI payment protocol x402 will become the norm. The open protocol uses HTTP 402 to let AI agents automatically pay for APIs via stablecoin transactions without separate accounts.
🇪🇺 OKX Card usage surges across Europe as crypto moves into everyday spending. OKX reports significant growth in card transactions across European markets, with users spending crypto on everyday purchases via the OKX Card.
🇦🇺 Nexo launches crypto-backed credit in Australia, offering loans secured by digital assets. Australian users can borrow against their crypto holdings without selling their assets through Nexo's credit line product.
🇺🇸 Citigroup plans to launch Bitcoin custody for institutional clients by year-end. The service will bring crypto into the same infrastructure the bank uses to safeguard traditional assets for pensions and hedge funds.
🇺🇸 IBNAi expands its digital asset ecosystem with branded enterprise-grade wallets through Fireblocks. Powered by Dynamic, the integrated wallet infrastructure supports payments, trading, and instant transfers for platform users.
STABLECOINS
🇺🇸 Rain CEO says stablecoin payments reach more than 100,000 merchants without them knowing it. Rain embeds stablecoin rails beneath card transactions, letting merchants accept stablecoin payments without any integration.
WEALTHTECH
🇬🇧 Revolut lays foundations for its own branded ETF range. The neobank is preparing to offer proprietary exchange-traded funds, expanding its wealth management offering beyond third-party investment products.
PARTNERSHIPS
🇺🇾 UATP names dLocal as newest payment processing partner for UATP One. dLocal processes payments across 60+ countries, giving airlines and travel merchants local acquiring options in fast-growing emerging markets.
🇸🇬 Eskimo adds stablecoin payments for its global eSIM plans through Triple-A. The travel eSIM provider serves over one million travellers across 175 countries and now accepts stablecoins at checkout via Triple-A's infrastructure.
🇺🇸 PayPal and Venmo expand to tuition payments, integrating with Illumia, Nelnet Campus Commerce, and TouchNet. Students and families at schools including Michigan State and Texas Tech can now pay tuition directly via PayPal or Venmo through existing portals.
🇲🇽 Argentina's tapi integrates with Mexico's Banco Dondé, enabling bill payments and top ups for over 200,000 customers. tapi operates in five countries, processes more than $6 billion annually, and raised a $27M Series B led by Kaszek.
🇩🇪 YouLend and comrce partner in Germany, bringing embedded capital to around 24,000 SME merchants. The integration gives online retailers flexible financing within their existing e-commerce hub.
🇬🇧 Paraglide becomes CICM corporate partner, as the credit management industry prepares for agentic AI. The collaboration aims to help credit professionals adopt AI-driven workflows.
🇮🇳 Payfuture and Payouts.com partner to power local payouts in India. The integration routes funds through genuine local rails including UPI and direct bank transfers, replacing costly correspondent banking chains with near real time settlement.
🇿🇦 Standard Bank and UnionPay expand e-commerce across 9 African markets. The collaboration aims to broaden online payment acceptance for UnionPay cardholders across the continent. Read more
🇭🇰 HashKey taps Hong Kong's first regulated stablecoin for settlements. HashKey and OneDegree will explore HKDAP for insurance premiums and cross-border settlements connecting Hong Kong and the Middle East.
DONEDEAL FUNDING NEWS
🇮🇳 Rezolv raises $12.5 million in a Series A led by Norwest, with participation from Vertex Ventures and 3one4 Capital. The Mumbai-based lending tech firm serves 22+ banks and NBFCs, handling 6.5 million minutes of borrower conversations monthly.
🇮🇳 Navi gets CCI nod for $100 million Prosus investment, clearing the way ahead of its planned IPO. The approval lets Prosus take a minority stake in the Indian FinTech founded by Sachin Bansal. Read more
🇺🇸 Former MoneyLion execs debut WealthTech venture Astraeus, launching with $10M in total funding. The infrastructure startup aims to power wealth management tools for FinTech platforms.
M&A
🇮🇳 Ant Group sells a 3% Paytm stake in a $309 million deal. Resilient Asset Management, controlled by founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, sold 19.2 million shares at 1,535.10 rupees each, with proceeds flowing to Ant Group under a 2023 agreement.
MOVERS AND SHAKERS
🇺🇸 Youth banking FinTech Nuuvia promotes Marcell King to CEO, elevating him from within the existing leadership team. King steps into the role as Nuuvia continues building financial products designed for young consumers.
FINTECH SIGNALS
🇬🇧 Revolut proposes letting CEO Storonsky borrow up to $250mn against his stake, a fivefold increase on the current $50mn cap. The company wrote to investors seeking approval and to remove the board sign-off requirement for larger share pledges under a project codenamed "Project Shasta."
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