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Nodu Raises $1.45M… and Stablecoin Rails in Europe Are Getting Practical

Hey Payments Fanatics! Nodu just closed a $1.45M pre-seed round to help banks and FinTechs launch stablecoin services without rebuilding their stack from scratch. The London-based team is building a ready-to-use compliance and payments framework for stablecoins. Send. Receive. Hold. Report. All handled in one regulated workflow. What makes

Nuvei Gets the MiCAR Green Light… and Europe Just Got a New Crypto Rail

Hey Payments Fanatic! Nuvei just received its Crypto-Asset Service Provider license under the EU’s MiCAR framework. With one license, Nuvei can now passport crypto-asset services across EU member states. No fragmented rules. No market-by-market setup. The full scope of what this enables is outlined in Nuvei’s MiCAR approval.

Deutsche Bank Rolls Out Wero Across Europe… and This Is a Clear Push for Payment Sovereignty

Hey Payments Fanatics! Deutsche Bank just switched on the full Wero experience for its clients, with Postbank customers now fully live for both P2P transfers and e-commerce payments across Europe. This means real-time money transfers to friends and family and the ability to pay online, all through the Wero app.

Visa Brings Stablecoin Settlement to the U.S… and This One Actually Changes the Rails

Hey Payments Fanatics! Visa just launched USDC settlement in the United States, opening the door for issuers and acquirers to settle directly in stablecoins. This is not a small pilot anymore. Visa is already running more than $3.5B in annualized stablecoin settlement volume, and now U.S. institutions can

Tackling global expansion with Flow: A conversation with Checkout.com’s Umang Sota

Hey there, Today, we explore how merchants can overcome payment challenges in global expansion. Joining me is Umang Sota, Director of Product at Checkout.com, to discuss how they are helping merchants simplify payments, boost acceptance rates, and conquer global markets. Arthur Bedel: Umang, it’s great to have you

Klarna Launches an Open Standard for Agentic Commerce… Here's Why It Matters

Hey Payments Fanatics! Klarna just launched its Agentic Product Protocol, an open standard designed to make products readable and usable by AI agents. Think scale first. Over 100M products. Around 400M live prices. All structured and standardized across 12 markets. As AI becomes the new shopping interface, this protocol gives

PayPal Lines Up Its Africa Wallet Launch… and the Global Ambition Here Is Hard to Miss

Hey Payments Fanatics! PayPal is getting ready to bring PayPal World to Africa in 2026, and the conversations on the ground are already happening with local FinTech players. The idea is simple but strong. Users keep their local wallet. PayPal handles the cross-border layer. You pay with a PayPal button

Stripe Brings in the Valora Team… and It’s Another Clear Push Into Stablecoin Payments

Hey Payments Fanatics! Stripe just brought in the team behind Valora, the mobile wallet built on Celo, to speed up its stablecoin and blockchain infrastructure work. The Valora app stays with cLabs, but its creators are moving inside Stripe to build new payment rails. These are the same people who

EIB Backs Scalapay With €70M… and It’s a Big Signal for Europe’s BNPL Champions

Hey Payments Fanatics! Scalapay just secured €70 million in Scale-Up Debt financing from the European Investment Bank. This is the first time the EIB has ever financed an Italian unicorn directly. The money goes straight into tech and product expansion. Faster rails. Simpler UX. More flexibility for customers across both

Stripe and Paradigm Launch Tempo, Their New Stablecoin Payments Blockchain ... and the Partner List Says It All

Hey Payments Fanatics! Stripe and Paradigm just opened Tempo to the public. Their stablecoin payments blockchain now comes with partners that no one expected this early. UBS. Deutsche Bank. Cross River. Nubank. Kalshi. Even OpenAI and Anthropic. When banks and AI labs line up behind a payments chain, you pay

Worldline Moves to Sell PaymentIQ… and It Shows Exactly How the Company Is Resetting

Hey Payments Fanatics! Worldline just announced the planned sale of PaymentIQ to Incore Invest for roughly €160M. The company is pushing forward with its refocus on core European payments and trying to streamline everything around its North Star plan. The move is all about simplification and tightening the portfolio. More

UnionPay Teams Up with Amazon Payment Services… and MENA Just Opened Up in a Big Way

Hey Payments Fanatics! UnionPay International is quietly stacking wins. And today’s move with Amazon Payment Services shows exactly where they’re heading. This collaboration plugs UnionPay acceptance straight into merchants across the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, and Jordan. The whole region, basically. A huge step for a network

Fin Raises $17M to Bring Stablecoin Speed to High-Value Payments

Hey Payments Fanatics! Fin just pulled in a $17M Series A led by Pantera Capital to launch its stablecoin-powered product for instant, large-value global transfers. The pitch is simple: move millions across borders without delays, opaque fees, or operational drag. Stablecoin rails with bank-grade reliability. Instant in. Instant out. Early

Pix Parcelado in Brazil Faces Regulatory Delay… but Guess What’s Putting Millions at Risk?

Hey Payments Fanatics! Brazil’s Central Bank and major banks just hit a standstill, delaying long-promised rules for Pix Parcelado. The rules were expected in October to bring clarity to consumers. Nothing came out. And every bank keeps pushing its own version of the product, with zero standardization. It’s