Cathie Wood’s ARK Blockchain & Fintech Innovation ETF delivered a standout 29% return in 2025, defying an industry downturn by stretching the definition of “financial technology.”

A stablecoin bidding war on one of crypto’s fastest-growing platforms is offering a preview of the industry’s next phase — and who might control it.

Jack Dorsey’s Block Inc. joins the coveted S&P 500 on Wednesday, a symbolic milestone that puts the digital finance firm — pursuing everything from mobile banking to Bitcoin mining — under Wall Street’s spotlight.

PNC Financial Services Group Inc. formed a partnership with crypto exchange Coinbase Global Inc. to offer its banking customers access to digital-currency services.

In a rare public embrace of the once-shunned world of crypto, the heads of America’s largest banks made one thing clear this week: stablecoins are no longer at the fringe of finance.

A turf war is breaking out in the vast world of digital payments — and the incumbents are suddenly on defense.

Fiserv Inc. is lauching its own stablecoin and joining with both traditional and crypto payments firms PayPal Holdings Inc. and Circle Internet Group Inc. to develop products for financial institutions and merchants within the banking technology provider’s ecosystem.

The clouds that hung over the financial-technology industry in 2024 appear to be clearing as interest-rate cuts, recoveries in fintech stocks and promises of a looser regulatory environment in the second Trump administration paint a more promising outlook for startups.