Today’s fintech developments reveal where the industry’s momentum is shifting: away from isolated financial products and towards connected infrastructure.
TechCrunch is dedicating an entire stage to the convergence of payments, AI and regulated finance. PayJoy and ChainUp have gained recognition for serving two very different sides of the market—consumer credit and institutional digital-asset infrastructure. Mastercard’s Los Angeles meetup shows blockchain becoming quieter but more practical, while Cashea’s $100 million raise demonstrates the scale of unmet credit demand in Venezuela.
TechCrunch Disrupt introduces the Smart Money Stage
TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 will introduce a dedicated Smart Money Stage exploring how artificial intelligence, stablecoins, instant payments and financial infrastructure are transforming money.
The event will take place from 13 to 15 October at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. Speakers will include executives and investors from Circle, Robinhood, American Express, Plaid, Airwallex, TabaPay and QED Investors, according to TechCrunch.
One discussion will examine how stablecoins and instant-payment systems compare with conventional banking rails, including the place of FedNow and private networks within an increasingly competitive payments market.
Another will consider what happens when AI moves beyond generating information and begins executing financial actions. Agentic systems can automate workflows, but they also introduce new questions around identity, privacy, fraud prevention, transparency and human oversight.
Giving an AI agent permission to research a transaction is different from authorising it to move money. Financial institutions will need clear controls governing what agents can access, which decisions they may make independently and when a human must intervene.
The programme also reflects the continued expansion of Airwallex, which is building an AI-native financial operating system for global businesses. Its role in the event follows Airwallex’s expansion across regulated markets and its broader push into cross-border payments, embedded finance and multi-currency services.
The creation of a dedicated Smart Money Stage is itself revealing. Fintech can no longer be separated neatly into banking, payments, lending, artificial intelligence and digital assets. These technologies are converging into a common infrastructure layer through which businesses and consumers manage money.
PayJoy recognised for expanding credit access
PayJoy has been included in CNBC and Statista’s World’s Top Fintech Companies 2026 list in recognition of its work in alternative financing.
According to the company’s announcement distributed by PR Newswire, PayJoy provides point-of-sale financing and card products to underserved consumers across Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Panama, Peru, Ecuador, South Africa, the Philippines and Indonesia.
Its secured-credit technology enables consumers—many of whom are borrowing formally for the first time—to access financing and establish a repayment history without relying entirely on conventional banking infrastructure.
PayJoy says it has financed more than $3.5 billion in loans for over 20 million people. Machine learning, data science and anti-fraud AI support its underwriting and risk-management processes.
The company’s recognition highlights an important distinction within financial inclusion. Access to an account is only one step. Consumers must also be able to establish creditworthiness, finance important purchases and build a financial record that can unlock better products over time.
This is the same challenge seen across other underserved financial markets, where digital infrastructure can reduce the practical distance between consumers and formal financial services.
PayJoy’s model demonstrates why alternative data and secured lending are increasingly significant in emerging markets. When traditional credit files are incomplete or nonexistent, fintech platforms can use repayment behaviour and other permitted data to assess customers who would otherwise remain invisible to lenders.
Crypto builders focus on practical utility
At a small fintech meetup in Los Angeles, founders discussed stablecoins, tokenised real estate, digital payments and the gradual movement of blockchain technology into everyday commerce.
The gathering portrayed in Mastercard’s report was far removed from the speculative excitement that once dominated cryptocurrency coverage. The builders present were more focused on reducing payment friction, widening access to assets and finding commercially viable uses for blockchain.
Stablecoins were central to those discussions. Their ability to operate continuously makes them useful for cross-border payments and business settlement outside traditional banking hours. Mastercard cited data showing that total stablecoin supply had risen by 20% over the previous year to $292 billion.
Regulatory developments—including the US GENIUS Act and the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets framework—have also increased institutional interest in issuing, accepting and integrating stablecoins.
The meetup included a project seeking to tokenise ownership in an 18,000-square-foot Los Angeles property, allowing participation from as little as $10. The model illustrates how blockchain could lower the financial threshold for investing in assets that have historically required substantial capital.
However, practical adoption still depends on compliance, consumer protection and reliable links with established payment systems. The development of regulated virtual-asset platforms demonstrates how digital-asset services are increasingly being brought inside formal supervisory frameworks.
Mastercard’s interest reflects the wider convergence between crypto and traditional payments. Rather than attempting to replace existing networks completely, many digital-asset companies now want to connect blockchain settlement with cards, bank accounts and global payment infrastructure.
Similar partnerships are already modernising cross-border corporate payments by combining fintech platforms with the reach and reliability of established networks.
The next chapter of crypto may therefore attract less public spectacle while producing more usable infrastructure.
ChainUp joins CNBC’s leading fintech list
ChainUp has also been named to CNBC and Statista’s World’s Top Fintech Companies 2026 list, earning recognition in the Digital Assets category.
According to the company’s announcement, ChainUp provides institutional digital-asset infrastructure to more than 700 enterprise clients across 30 countries. Its technology supports an ecosystem of over 60 million end users and maintains reported service availability of 99.99%.
The platform combines crypto-exchange and prediction-market infrastructure, institutional staking, non-custodial multi-party computation, real-world-asset tokenisation, payment rails and real-time compliance controls.
ChainUp has also incorporated AI into areas such as order routing, liquidity optimisation and risk management. Its infrastructure is supported by a SOC 2 Type II report and ISO/IEC 27001 certification.
The recognition reflects the maturation of digital assets from a collection of fragmented platforms into an institutional technology sector. Financial institutions and enterprise operators increasingly require systems that can combine trading, custody, tokenisation, payments and compliance within a consistent governance structure.
For those clients, operational resilience and regulatory compatibility matter as much as product innovation. Infrastructure must remain available under heavy demand, provide auditable controls and adapt to different licensing requirements across jurisdictions.
ChainUp’s appearance alongside PayJoy in the same global fintech ranking also illustrates the breadth of the industry. One company helps first-time borrowers establish access to credit; the other builds infrastructure for sophisticated digital-asset operators. Both are solving problems created by gaps in conventional financial systems.
Cashea raises $100 million for Venezuela expansion
Venezuelan buy-now-pay-later provider Cashea has secured a combined $100 million through two funding rounds, attracting international investment into a consumer-credit market long constrained by economic instability.
Crowdfund Insider reports that Cashea completed a previously undisclosed $40 million Series A in March 2026. The round included $20 million in equity led by Spice Expeditions and $20 million in debt from Architect Capital.
A $60 million Series B followed in June, led by FinSight Ventures with participation from Spice Expeditions, Endeavor Catalyst, Plug and Play, US university endowments and investors from Latin America and other international markets.
Founded in 2022, Cashea allows customers to pay an initial deposit and settle the remaining balance through interest-free biweekly instalments. Instead of charging consumers interest, it generates revenue from merchant commissions.
Customers begin with relatively limited purchasing power, but positive repayment behaviour can unlock higher limits, lower deposits and longer repayment periods.
Cashea says it now serves more than 10 million consumer accounts—equivalent to over half of Venezuela’s adult population—and works with approximately 40,000 merchants. The platform has processed more than 100 million transactions covering electronics, clothing, groceries, pharmaceuticals and other everyday purchases.
The company intends to invest all the newly raised capital inside Venezuela. Its plans include expanding responsible credit, developing payment and savings products, supporting merchants and strengthening its technology infrastructure.
The investment follows other major funding rounds involving Latin American fintech expansion, but Cashea’s operating environment makes this case particularly notable.
Traditional bank lending in Venezuela was severely diminished by hyperinflation, economic turmoil and regulatory pressure. Cashea has grown by rebuilding a form of transactional trust between consumers and merchants when conventional credit infrastructure could not adequately serve the market.
Its scale demonstrates that buy-now-pay-later can function as more than a checkout convenience. In markets with limited consumer credit, it can become an alternative financial layer supporting everyday commerce.
The bigger picture
Today’s stories show fintech evolving around two complementary priorities: better infrastructure and wider access.
TechCrunch’s Smart Money agenda captures the convergence of AI, payments, stablecoins and regulated finance. ChainUp and Mastercard illustrate how digital assets are moving towards institutional and commercial utility. PayJoy and Cashea demonstrate that some of fintech’s largest opportunities still come from giving underserved consumers their first meaningful access to credit.
The connecting theme is not disruption for its own sake. It is the construction of financial systems capable of serving customers, businesses and institutions that existing infrastructure has failed to reach efficiently.
Fintech’s next winners may not be the companies offering the most fashionable interface. They will be those that can build trust, operate within regulation and turn technology into infrastructure people can use in everyday economic life.
