Advisory
Advisory Insights: July Edition
July 1, 2025
The Storyline
The regulatory landscape continued its shift toward fintech-friendly policies as the GENIUS Act successfully passed in the U.S. Senate, providing clearer frameworks for digital asset operations and stablecoin issuance. This legislative milestone represents a significant step forward in establishing comprehensive crypto regulation while maintaining the current administration’s innovation-friendly approach. The bill’s passage signals growing bipartisan support for digital asset innovation and provides regulatory clarity that has been anticipated by the industry for years.
Stripe’s application to form a special-purpose bank, organized under Georgia’s authority to grant merchant acquirer limited purpose bank (MALPB) charters, was conditionally approved on June 30, 2025, making it only the third company to receive such approval. Circle has formally submitted an application to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) to establish a national trust bank, First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A., while Wise filed an application on June 16 with the OCC and Ripple filed an application for a national banking charter with the OCC.
Public markets witnessed a surge in fintech IPO activity, signaling renewed investor confidence in the sector. Circle and Chime led the charge with successful public offerings, demonstrating strong investor appetite for profitable fintech businesses. U.K. neobank Monzo demonstrated particularly impressive fundamentals ahead of its planned IPO, with revenue growing 48% to £1.2 billion and customer deposits rising to £16.6 billion, showcasing the scalability of digital banking models. The crypto sector showed particular momentum as Gemini, Sol Strategies, FalconX, and Bullish all filed for U.S. IPOs. Wealthfront also confidentially filed for a U.S. IPO after growing assets to $85 billion. In a notable cross-border development, Wise announced plans to shift its primary listing to the U.S.
Ramp crossed $750 million in annual revenue and raised $150 million at a $16 billion valuation. OatFi raised $24 million in Series A funding to develop modern credit infrastructure for B2B payments, while Noah secured $22 million to build a global stablecoin payments network. Juniper Square raised $130 million in Series D to expand JunieAI, its AI copilot for real estate investment workflows.
Stripe made significant moves in crypto by acquiring Privy to expand onboarding and wallet management, following its Bridge acquisition last fall. Robinhood completed its acquisition of Bitstamp for $200 million. Tipalti acquired Statement to enhance spend management and visibility.
Visa expanded stablecoin capabilities, partnering with Yellow Card in Africa. PayPal announced plans to bring PYUSD to Stellar. Mastercard joined Paxos’ Global Dollar Network. Shopify announced that merchants can automatically accept USDC payments through Coinbase and Stripe. Plaid and Experian partnered to use cash flow underwriting for lending.
Network Spotlight
This month we sat down with Chris Dean, Co-founder & CEO of Treasury Prime.
Tell us a little about yourself and Treasury Prime.
I’m Chris Dean, Co-founder and CEO of Treasury Prime. I’m a software engineer and lapsed scientist who found a surprising love for banking. Our last startup was acquired by Silicon Valley Bank. I ran the fintech group there and used that experience when we started Treasury Prime.
Treasury Prime’s mission is to provide banks with world-class software to run embedded banking relationships.
What key challenges do you see companies facing when building embedded banking products, and how does Treasury Prime address them?
There are three main challenges:
- You need a direct contract with a bank.
- You’ll need more than one bank as you scale.
- You need to work with a strong banking tech stack.
Treasury Prime connects companies to banks, provides seamless multi-bank software, and offers its own private payment rails and BankOS platform.
How do you see embedded banking evolving?
Always bet on the banks—they are the backbone of embedded finance. Stablecoins will become a major part of payments. More banks will adopt tech, more partnerships will form, and deals will accelerate.
How can people get in touch?
Email: ctdean@treasuryprime.com
What’s a hobby or passion that helps you unwind?
I love beekeeping. It’s challenging on the California coast, but nothing beats harvesting honey.
Product Launches
- Klarna introduced a hybrid debit card with Visa, combining debit with BNPL.
- Zilch debuted a physical Visa card to extend installment services to in-store payments.
- Coinbase launched the Coinbase One Card with Amex and Bitcoin rewards, and Coinbase Businesses.
- Fiserv unveiled FIUSD stablecoin for community banks.
- Cross River launched Request for Payment on the RTP network with Plaid as its first partner.
- Plaid unveiled Transactions for Business.
- Payabl launched virtual corporate cards.
- OnePay and Synchrony announced a co-branded credit card program.
- SoFi expanded with new crypto trading and international transfers.
- Expensify added global card import support for 10,000+ banks.
FS Vector Calendar
FS Vector-Hosted Events
- American Fintech Council CCO/CRO Roundtable | July 16 | Washington, D.C.
- Batter Up! A Night at the Ballpark hosted by Telliant, Wipfli & FS Vector | August 18 | Atlanta, GA
Events FS Vector is attending
- BaaS Executive Summit 2025 | July 22 | Chicago, IL
- American Association of Residential Mortgage Regulators | August 5–7 | Fort Worth, TX