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There was a time when the biggest technology companies knew exactly what they were. Twitter was where the world talked. Facebook was where friends connected. YouTube was where anyone could broadcast themselves. Netflix was where you watched great television without adverts, schedules or interruptions. PayPal was the easiest way to pay online. Each company had……

Things we’re reading today include … Adyen is coming for agentic payments. Can startups keep up? Stripe vet buys a bank for his fintech Cryptocurrency Trading Volumes Near Three-Year Low Lloyds reports first-half profit up 23%, outlines AI-driven cost-cutting plans Central banks slashed their gold purchases in early 2026 Increase in mortgage debt ‘doesn’t indicate……

For decades we’ve assumed that technology would make markets more efficient. It has. What we perhaps didn’t anticipate is that it would also make theft, lies and deceit dramatically more efficient. This is illustrated by three completely unrelated stories that caught my attention this week. One examined how consumers are abusing chargeback rules through “friendly……

Things we’re reading today include … HSBC to close all branches and pull out of Australian retail banking market Can Australia’s newest bank give the ‘big four’ some real competition? Coinbase Revenue Falls 19% Over Weak Cryptocurrency Market Elizabeth Warren Highlights Survey Indicating 55% of Voters ‘Disapprove’ of Trump’s Billion-Dollar Crypto Earnings Donald Trump’s $10,000,000,000……

Back in 2021, PayPal was worth around $360 billion. Today it is worth closer to $50 billion. That’s one of the biggest destructions of market value we’ve seen in fintech, and yet it isn’t because the company stopped growing. Quite the opposite. PayPal still moves almost $2 trillion every year, serves around 440 million active……

This week’s main blog discussions include … PayPal, Stripe and Adyen: three companies, three futures Back in 2021, PayPal was worth around $360 billion. Today it is worth closer to $50 billion. That’s one of the biggest destructions of market value we’ve seen in fintech, and yet it isn’t because the company stopped growing. Quite……

You’ve been thinking about cryptocurrencies all wrong. Every few months someone declares that cryptocurrency is dead. In fact, there’s a website dedicated to recording every one of those predictions. The latest panic is bitcoin’s price falling below $65,000 and Coinbase reporting weaker revenues. A few months earlier everyone was predicting Bitcoin would hit $200,000. Before……