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Jamie Dimon $JPM answering a question from Betsy Graseck, Morgan Stanley analyst. Dimon is the GOAT.

Lithuania has a population of 2.8 million, but the country's central bank issued a banking license to Revolut...and now there are almost 40 million cards in the country.

Robinhood $HOOD got a European Union brokerage license from the Central Bank of Lithuania. I guess this means Robinhood is coming to Europe!

Ok, let me try explaining (mostly to myself) what the x402 protocol, launched by Coinbase, means: ✔️ When you type a URL into the browser, your browser ("the client") tries connecting to a server that hosts the website (e.g., Bloomberg). If it successfully connects, the server returns status 200, which means “all good.” ✔️ If you type a wrong URL, the server tells your browser that this page does not exist by returning a 404 error (you’ve definitely seen this one). ✔️ So…the 402 is a new type of response (or rather, it has existed for a long time, but was never used), which means: “hey, the URL exists, but you need to pay for it.” ✔️ If you are a human, you see a paywall and enter your credit card to access the content…. ✔️ BUT…if you are a machine (e.g., an AI agent), you actually have no idea that you need to pay. You just get a 200 response, but for a paywall page, not the page that you tried to access. ✔️ 402 solves this issue: it tells you, in a machine-readable way, that accessing the URL requires a payment, and again in a machine-readable way, gives you the accepted payment types (“schemes”). ✔️ The machine can then add payment info and send it back to the server to access the content. I’m not sure it would be cool to send your card details, and a machine can’t have a card anyway… ✔️ BUT…a machine can construct a stablecoin payment: create a signature authorizing the transfer. This is safer than sending card details, because you sign a specific transfer (including the recipient address and the amount), instead of giving general access to your wallet. ✔️ What happens then is the content provider sends it to a Facilitator. You can think of it as a merchant acquirer that processes such requests (collecting signed authorizations and posting them to a blockchain). ✔️ After the payment is processed (“settled”), the machine can access the paid content. Cool things about it: ✔️ This essentially enables AI agents and similar types of interfaces to pay for things online. There is no need for a human in between. ✔️ It creates a new entity, “Facilitator”, which is a new breed of merchant acquirer (Coinbase launched the protocol and offers such a Facilitator). ✔️ This creates a new use case for stablecoins SOUNDS FREAKING COOL!!!

OMG! OMG! OMG! Stablecoins are coming to Cash App!!! $XYZ

Growth of Coinbase's $COIN "Subscription & Services Revenue" is...INSANE! (and I don't use CAPS or "insane" lightly). $45 million in 2020, $2.31 billion in 2024.

Whoaaaa!!! 💙 “Stripe will add support for Base across its crypto product suite, and Coinbase $COIN will add Stripe’s fiat-to-crypto onramp into Coinbase Wallet to allow users to buy crypto instantly with credit cards and Apple Pay.”

I guess, it's official now: Cash App has maxed out its TAM $XYZ

Coinbase $COIN Q4 and full-year 2024 results 👇🏻

18.2x 2025 P/E at these growth rates…. $NU

This is the most bullish thing about the Fintech industry you will read today: in Q1 2024, Square $SQ originated $1.32 billion in small business loans....Chase $JPM originated $1.13 billion 👇🏻

Reading about the Coinbase Commerce Payments Protocol that will power USDC on Shopify. If I understand correctly, the protocol allows implementing rules similar to the rules currently enforced by Visa and Mastercard: ✔️ The protocol introduces two concepts: "Escrow" and "Operator" ✔️ Funds from payers are collected into the "Escrow" before being transferred to the merchant ✔️ The "Operator", which can be an "advanced smart contract", facilitates the transfer of funds from the "Escrow" to the merchant (or back to the payer) ✔️ "The protocol is not concerned with how the operator is implemented and just recognizes it as an address" ...so Visa or Mastercard can build their own "Operators" that implement the scheme's rules through smart contracts. How cool is that?!!! $COIN $V $MA

In case you wondered what Robinhood’s $HOOD tokenized stocks really are…From the “Description of Services”: ✔️ When a new US Stock Derivative contract is entered into, Robinhood will simultaneously issue (mint) over a blockchain a new fungible token ✔️ This token represents the ownership rights that the customer has over the US Stock Derivative ✔️ The token is non-transferable and non-assignable ✔️ When the US Stock Derivative is closed out, Robinhood burns the tokenized US Stock Derivative contract from the blockchain ✔️ The derivative contract is based on the value of its underlying asset, which would be a US stock or ETF ✔️ Instead of owning the actual thing (like barrels of oil or shares of a company), you're betting on how its price will move ✔️ Customers have certain contractual rights under the terms of the US Stock Derivative contract, but do not have ownership rights over the stock or ETF itself 👇🏻

Nubank $NU is a beast

It’s somewhat underappreciated how much payments infrastructure Coinbase $COIN has built: Base, Embedded Wallets, Onramp, Commerce Payments Protocol, and, of course, USDC. They’ll be a major force in bringing payments onchain.

Look what’ve found in the App Store! Maker fee: 0% Taker fee: 0.09%

Ok, let me try explaining (mostly to myself) what the x402 protocol, launched by Coinbase, means: ✔️ When you type a URL into the browser, your browser ("the client") tries connecting to a server that hosts the website (e.g., Bloomberg). If it successfully connects, the server returns status 200, which means “all good.” ✔️ If you type a wrong URL, the server tells your browser that this page does not exist by returning a 404 error (you’ve definitely seen this one). ✔️ So…the 402 is a new type of response (or rather, it has existed for a long time, but was never used), which means: “hey, the URL exists, but you need to pay for it.” ✔️ If you are a human, you see a paywall and enter your credit card to access the content…. ✔️ BUT…if you are a machine (e.g., an AI agent), you actually have no idea that you need to pay. You just get a 200 response, but for a paywall page, not the page that you tried to access. ✔️ 402 solves this issue: it tells you, in a machine-readable way, that accessing the URL requires a payment, and again in a machine-readable way, gives you the accepted payment types (“schemes”). ✔️ The machine can then add payment info and send it back to the server to access the content. I’m not sure it would be cool to send your card details, and a machine can’t have a card anyway… ✔️ BUT…a machine can construct a stablecoin payment: create a signature authorizing the transfer. This is safer than sending card details, because you sign a specific transfer (including the recipient address and the amount), instead of giving general access to your wallet. ✔️ What happens then is the content provider sends it to a Facilitator. You can think of it as a merchant acquirer that processes such requests (collecting signed authorizations and posting them to a blockchain). ✔️ After the payment is processed (“settled”), the machine can access the paid content. Cool things about it: ✔️ This essentially enables AI agents and similar types of interfaces to pay for things online. There is no need for a human in between. ✔️ It creates a new entity, “Facilitator”, which is a new breed of merchant acquirer (Coinbase launched the protocol and offers such a Facilitator). ✔️ This creates a new use case for stablecoins SOUNDS FREAKING COOL!!!

OMG! OMG! OMG! Stablecoins are coming to Cash App!!! $XYZ

In case you wondered what Robinhood’s $HOOD tokenized stocks really are…From the “Description of Services”: ✔️ When a new US Stock Derivative contract is entered into, Robinhood will simultaneously issue (mint) over a blockchain a new fungible token ✔️ This token represents the ownership rights that the customer has over the US Stock Derivative ✔️ The token is non-transferable and non-assignable ✔️ When the US Stock Derivative is closed out, Robinhood burns the tokenized US Stock Derivative contract from the blockchain ✔️ The derivative contract is based on the value of its underlying asset, which would be a US stock or ETF ✔️ Instead of owning the actual thing (like barrels of oil or shares of a company), you're betting on how its price will move ✔️ Customers have certain contractual rights under the terms of the US Stock Derivative contract, but do not have ownership rights over the stock or ETF itself 👇🏻

So far this year, I’ve written about: ✔️ Visa (x2) $V ✔️ PayPal (x2) $PYPL ✔️ Block $SQ ✔️ Affirm $AFRM ✔️ Klarna $KLAR ✔️ Wise $WISE.L ✔️ Shift4 $FOUR ✔️ Nubank $NU ✔️ Capital One $COF ✔️ Amex $AXP ✔️ Robinhood $HOOD Which company should I write about next?

Robinhood $HOOD got a European Union brokerage license from the Central Bank of Lithuania. I guess this means Robinhood is coming to Europe!

One thing I don’t see being discussed enough about the Shopify $SHOP and Coinbase $COIN partnership is consumer incentives. Shopify plans to offer 1% cash back to customers. Boom! The “credit cards are forever” thesis just took a major blow.

18.2x 2025 P/E at these growth rates…. $NU

Lithuania has a population of 2.8 million, but the country's central bank issued a banking license to Revolut...and now there are almost 40 million cards in the country.

I guess, it's official now: Cash App has maxed out its TAM $XYZ

PayPal $PYPL has chased every hot narrative this year, from stablecoins to agentic commerce. This didn’t help the stock. So what will?

It’s somewhat underappreciated how much payments infrastructure Coinbase $COIN has built: Base, Embedded Wallets, Onramp, Commerce Payments Protocol, and, of course, USDC. They’ll be a major force in bringing payments onchain.

This should scare the hell out of Robinhood $HOOD! Charles Schwab $SCHW plans to “hire hundreds of new financial consultants and expand their physical branch network in a meaningful and thoughtful way in the year ahead.”

Growth of Coinbase's $COIN "Subscription & Services Revenue" is...INSANE! (and I don't use CAPS or "insane" lightly). $45 million in 2020, $2.31 billion in 2024.

Block is back (sort of) Will this time be different? I love Block $XYZ. It is an iconic company. But being a shareholder hasn’t been easy. The stock finally got some love recently, climbing above $80, but I’d argue that move is mostly about multiple expansion (the company got included in the S&P 500 index!). Analysts still don’t buy into the company’s growth story. There’s been a wave of good news: Square completed its replatforming and rolled out a bunch of new features (including a sleek new POS device). Cash App finally integrated Afterpay, and Block began using its own bank for lending. Plus, there’s a shiny new Bitcoin play with Proto. Still, I don’t think Block is out of the woods. The product momentum is real, but it's unclear how much of it will translate into near-term financials. And if growth stalls, the market won’t care about new product launches (just ask PayPal). Am I being overly pessimistic this time? Will this time be different? Let’s dive in! (follow the link in the reply) 👇🏻

Reading about the Coinbase Commerce Payments Protocol that will power USDC on Shopify. If I understand correctly, the protocol allows implementing rules similar to the rules currently enforced by Visa and Mastercard: ✔️ The protocol introduces two concepts: "Escrow" and "Operator" ✔️ Funds from payers are collected into the "Escrow" before being transferred to the merchant ✔️ The "Operator", which can be an "advanced smart contract", facilitates the transfer of funds from the "Escrow" to the merchant (or back to the payer) ✔️ "The protocol is not concerned with how the operator is implemented and just recognizes it as an address" ...so Visa or Mastercard can build their own "Operators" that implement the scheme's rules through smart contracts. How cool is that?!!! $COIN $V $MA