Challenging Traditional Banks: FIN Captures the Large Payment Market with Instant Settlement and Low Fees

比推Опубліковано о 2025-12-26Востаннє оновлено о 2025-12-26

Анотація

FIN, a startup founded by former Citadel employees, is challenging traditional banks by offering instant, low-fee, high-value cross-border payments using stablecoin technology. Initially launched as TipLink, a lightweight tool for crypto transfers via URLs, the company has rebranded and refocused on serving businesses and high-net-worth individuals with transactions worth millions of dollars. In December 2025, FIN raised $17 million in a Series A round led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Sequoia Capital and Samsung Next. The platform uses USDC as its settlement medium, enabling seamless conversion between fiat and digital assets while abstracting away technical complexities like gas fees and private keys. FIN aims to generate revenue through lower transaction fees compared to traditional alternatives and interest earned on stablecoins held in user wallets. With a team featuring backgrounds from Citadel, Google, Meta, and Chime, FIN is positioned to enhance efficiency in global trade and corporate finance through its institutional-grade payment solutions. Pilot programs for import-export businesses are expected to launch soon.

Written by: KarenZ, Foresight News

Original title: Pantera, Sequoia, and Samsung Jointly Bet, Is FIN Going to Steal Traditional Banks' Business?

In the current global financial system, large cross-border transfers still suffer from "slow settlement, high fees, and cumbersome processes." A startup named FIN is tackling this pain point head-on by leveraging stablecoins, aiming to rewrite the industry's status quo.

Founded by two former Citadel employees, FIN is not just making small moves on the periphery. Instead, it is building a large payment rail using stablecoin technology, dedicated to providing instant and efficient cross-border transfer experiences for businesses and high-net-worth individuals.

In early December 2025, FIN announced the completion of a $17 million funding round, led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Sequoia and Samsung Next. The capital recognition highlights the potential of its track.

So, what exactly is FIN? What is its background? And how will it operate and land in the future? This article will take you through it.

FIN's Core Positioning

Many people's first impression of this team comes from its predecessor, TipLink—a lightweight tool that supports encrypted asset transfers via URL links, supporting the Solana network with zero fees.

But the rebranded FIN has upgraded its goal to "challenge traditional banks' global payment App," focusing on meeting the large transfer needs of users and businesses for millions of dollars. It supports diverse scenarios such as transfers to other FIN users, direct deposits into bank accounts, or circulation through cryptocurrency channels.

FIN CEO Ian Krotinsky made it clear in an interview with Fortune magazine that the company's core goal is to build "the payment app of the future": fully leveraging the technical advantages of stablecoins while stripping away their complex professional barriers to achieve seamless global use.

This positioning恰好 aligns with the current development trend of the stablecoin track.

Core Team: Quantitative Genes + Pain Point Driven

One of FIN's core competencies lies in the hardcore background of its founding team.

FIN Co-founder and CEO Ian Krotinsky: Before founding the project in 2022, he worked as a quantitative portfolio manager and trader at top hedge fund Citadel from 2016 to 2022, and previously served as a programmatic trader at Goldman Sachs.
FIN Co-founder and CTO Aashiq Dheeraj: Worked as a quantitative researcher at Citadel Securities from 2018 to 2022.

According to Fortune magazine, during their time working together at Citadel, the two often spent nights and weekends developing various hack projects, including a Reddit-like platform where users could earn a $50 reward if their posts made it to the front page. It was this experience that gave them deeply appreciate the inefficiency and high cost of traditional cross-border transfers, ultimately leading them to decide to use blockchain technology to solve this industry pain point.

According to FIN's official website, the team also have backgrounds from companies like Google, Meta, Uber, and leading US digital bank Chime.

Funding History

As early as February 2023, TipLink completed a $6 million seed funding round led by Sequoia Capital and Multicoin Capital, with participation from Solana Ventures, Circle Ventures, Paxos, and others.

Nearly 3 years later, on December 3, 2025, FIN announced the completion of a $17 million Series A funding round led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Sequoia Capital and Samsung's investment arm Samsung Next. Several industry veterans joined as angel investors, including Helius CEO Mert, Bridge CEO Zach Abrams (Stripe's stablecoin infrastructure company), Ellipsis Labs co-founder Jarry Xiao, and Tensor co-founder Richard Wu.

From TipLink to FIN: How Does the Project Operate?

As mentioned earlier, FIN's predecessor was TipLink. TipLink is a lightweight wallet, with its biggest innovation being that the link itself is a non-custodial wallet. It currently only supports the Solana network and charges no fees.

TipLink has built a mature lightweight payment ecosystem:

Ordinary users can log in via a Web3 wallet or Google account, create a TipLink, and share it via SMS, Discord, email, or any other platform. The recipient can automatically activate the wallet by logging in with Gmail, enabling asset holding, transfer, or redistribution;
The enterprise product TipLink Pro supports distributing token or NFT assets through a single control panel;
The developer-oriented TipLink Wallet Adapter supports rapid integration of wallet functions, allowing users to sign transactions using only their Google account.

Although the revamped FIN has not disclosed all the details, it has clarified five core operational logics:

Using stablecoin USDC as the foundation: FIN supports using the USDC dollar stablecoin as the settlement medium. Regarding a demo released by FIN, Jeremy Allaire, co-founder and CEO of Circle, stated that the seamless connection of USDC enterprise accounts and payments, along with the interoperability between fiat and cryptocurrency in the backend, delivers an efficient user experience.
Focusing on "high-value transactions": Unlike TipLink's early focus on small C2C (consumer-to-consumer) transfers and many small payment apps in the market targeting C-end and retail users, FIN focuses on high-value institutional-level transactions. Use cases include asset transfers for high-net-worth individuals, import and export trade settlements, internal transfers within multinational corporations, and other scenarios.
A hub for fiat currency and digital assets: As Jeremy Allaire said, thanks to the interoperability between fiat and cryptocurrency in the backend, users can convert fiat currency into stablecoins for cross-border transmission. The recipient can choose to keep the stablecoins or directly withdraw to a local bank account through FIN's compliant channel.
Where does the revenue come from? According to Fortune magazine, FIN stated that its revenue will come from handling fees, but for users, these fees will be lower than other alternatives. Additionally, FIN will also generate revenue from the interest income on stablecoins held in FIN wallets.
"De-Crypto" experience: Ian Krotinsky直言, FIN aims to leverage the advantages of stablecoins but discard their complexity. When using FIN, users do not need to understand what Gas fees are, what private keys are, or what on-chain confirmations are.

Summary

The evolution from TipLink's single-point function of "link transfer" to FIN's "payment platform" reflects the shift in the Web3 payment track from "fun" to "useful" and "commercialized".

If TipLink allowed users to experience the convenience of "sending money by sending a link," then FIN's goal is to make this convenience the daily standard for global commercial trade.

In the increasingly crowded stablecoin track, FIN,凭借 its team's quantitative genes, clear institutional-level positioning, and compatibility with traditional finance, becomes a player worth watching long-term.

FIN has revealed that it will soon launch pilot projects targeting import and export enterprises. For such companies, cross-border payment efficiency directly affects supply chain turnover efficiency, and the "instant settlement" service provided by FIN may further drive efficiency in the cross-border payment industry.

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Пов'язані питання

QWhat is the core value proposition of FIN's payment platform?

AFIN's core value proposition is to provide instant, efficient, and low-cost cross-border transfers for large-value transactions (millions of dollars) for businesses and high-net-worth individuals, leveraging stablecoin technology to overcome the slow processing times, high fees, and complex procedures of the traditional financial system.

QWhich major investment firms participated in FIN's Series A funding round announced in December 2025?

AFIN's $17 million Series A funding round was led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Sequoia Capital and Samsung Next.

QWhat was the previous name of the FIN project, and what was its primary function?

AThe project was previously named TipLink. It was a lightweight, non-custodial wallet tool that allowed users to send crypto assets via a simple URL link, supporting the Solana network with zero fees.

QHow does FIN plan to generate revenue from its service?

AFIN plans to generate revenue through transaction fees, which it states will be lower than alternative options, and from the interest income earned on the stablecoins held within FIN wallets.

QWhat specific stablecoin does FIN use as the foundation for its settlement system, and what key advantage does this provide according to Circle's CEO?

AFIN uses the USDC stablecoin as its settlement medium. According to Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, this provides a seamless connection between enterprise USDC accounts and payments, with interoperability between fiat and crypto in the backend, resulting in a highly efficient user experience.

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