OnlyFintechs

Stablecoins make money settle like cash again: pay, and it's done. Rain CEO Farooq Malik argues on the World Economic Forum's site that finance should embrace the upgrade.In his Oct 12, 2026 op-ed, Malik says electronic rails "separated payment from settlement," forcing banks to prefund accounts and reconcile after the fact. Capgemini estimates as much as $4 trillion sits trapped in settlement and liquidity accounts for cross-border payments. With a stablecoin, "the transfer and the record of it are the same event." That could free idle capital and make more markets "economic to serve." He also asks who benefits from the delay: institutions that earn on the float. The views are Malik's own, not WEF's, and Rain sells stablecoin payments infrastructure. Its OCC trust bank application from S2E23 is still pending.What you'll learn:Why cash's "payment and settlement at the same time" is the property stablecoins bring backWhere the up to $4 trillion in trapped capital comes from, per CapgeminiWhy sending $200 to sub-Saharan Africa costs 8.46% on average, per the World BankWho profits from slow money, and why incumbents need to adaptThe BIS "singleness, elasticity and integrity" hurdles, and how the stablecoin case answers themKeywords: stablecoins, cross-border payments, Rain, Farooq Malik, World Economic Forum, settlement, correspondent banking, BIS, remittances.#Stablecoins #Payments #CrossBorderPayments #Rain #Remittances #Fintech #OnlyFintechs

OKXICE, the 50/50 joint venture between OKX and NYSE owner Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), has notified the SEC that it plans to run a 24/7 venue for 63 tokenized U.S. stocks. It is a notice, not an approval, and trading can't start before Nov 3 at the earliest.The Oct 4 notice, filed under the SEC's Sept 17 "Innovation Exemption," describes permissioned Uniswap v4 liquidity pools on OKX's X Layer blockchain, where verified wallets would trade tokenized Nvidia, Tesla, Apple, SpaceX, JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, Coinbase, Circle and more against USDC, USDG or USDT. An unnamed third-party "Tokenizer" would hold the real shares one-for-one through a broker-dealer, with dividends and voting rights passed through. Cerebras has already objected to having its stock tokenized, and tight SEC volume caps keep the experiment small. Eleven days after NYSE signed its tokenized-stock MOU with Blockchain.com on Sept 23, ICE's other crypto partnership has moved to an actual filing. Catch up on that story in S2E11: NYSE × Blockchain.com.What you'll learn:What OKXICE actually filed, and why "notified the SEC" isn't "approved"How a permissioned DeFi pool with soulbound-token access is supposed to trade real stocksWho issues the tokens (an unnamed Tokenizer), and what holders would getThe 30-day clocks, issuer objections like Cerebras's, and the 0.25% volume capThe risks the notice itself flags: price gaps overnight, no clearing agency, admin keys, SIPC uncertaintyHow this fits ICE's two tokenization tracks, after S2E11 and S2E2Keywords: OKXICE, OKX, Intercontinental Exchange, ICE, NYSE, tokenized stocks, Tokenized Securities Venue, SEC Innovation Exemption, Uniswap v4, X Layer, USDC, USDG, USDT, Cerebras, Andrew Cuomo, Star Xu, 24/7 trading.#Tokenization #TokenizedStocks #OKX #ICE #NYSE #SEC #Stablecoins #CapitalMarkets

Frank Rotman's "Kepler Correction" says the rational customer banking waited eight years for has finally arrived, and it's an AI agent.In 2018, QED Investors co-founder Frank Rotman argued in "The Copernican Revolution in Banking" that banks can't be everything to everyone, and that share would move to best-in-class providers once customers could compare everything. Now at 37Maru, he grades that thesis himself in a 64-slide 2026 deck, "Banking In The Agentic Era." His conclusion: customers had the information but didn't act. Friction was the missing term, and AI agents that act on a customer's behalf could remove it.The 2018 model, problem, prediction and question, plus Rotman's own scorecard (Big Tech: D)The "Inertia Tax," the profit banks earn when customers don't act on what they knowThree Keplerian laws: path of least resistance, banks fight back, agents become the channelThe "Quiet Run": why deposit beta could approach 1.0 when agents compare rates dailyPermission, recourse and trust, and Rotman's case for a licensed, fiduciary AI DelegateAgent savings stories cited in the deck are self-reported. Rotman discloses that he is building a company in agentic finance.Read Frank Rotman's original work: "Banking In The Agentic Era: The Kepler Correction" (LinkedIn) and "The Copernican Revolution in Banking" (2018). Only Fintechs is independent commentary and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Frank Rotman, 37Maru or QED Investors.Keywords: Frank Rotman, 37Maru, QED Investors, Kepler Correction, Copernican Revolution in Banking, AI agents, agentic finance, deposits, deposit beta, inertia tax, Mercury, Nubank, Chime, open banking#Fintech #AIAgents #Banking #AgenticAI #Deposits #OpenBanking #OnlyFintechs

Samsung announced on Oct 7, 2026 that Samsung Wallet will add USDC for eligible U.S. Galaxy users starting the last week of October, putting stablecoin accounts inside the wallet on 82 million compatible U.S. devices, with no extra app and no private keys to manage.USDC is the first and only stablecoin at launch. The accounts run on Bastion, with Coinbase as sub-custodian through Coinbase Prime Vault, and Solana and Sui provide network support. Samsung says it is not a bank, money transmitter, or custodian. Users will be able to send USDC to compatible crypto wallets with no Samsung transfer fee, and to bank accounts in more than 60 countries in local currency, with fees that vary and are shown in the app. Paying online or by tapping in store is only a possible future feature. It isn't live yet, and Samsung hasn't disclosed remittance fees or FX spreads.In this OnlyFintechs episode we cover what Samsung announced and what is still unknown:Why distribution is the moat when the wallet ships on the phoneWho does what: Samsung, Bastion, Coinbase, Solana and Sui, and why Circle isn't namedRemittances first, payments later, and why the fee screens matterThe regulatory timing, with stablecoin rules still being finalizedFrom Samsung's self-custody Blockchain Keystore to a KYC'd custodial accountKeywords: Samsung Wallet, Samsung, USDC, stablecoins, Bastion, Coinbase, Coinbase Prime, Solana, Sui, Galaxy, cross-border payments, remittances, digital wallet, stablecoin custody.#SamsungWallet #USDC #Stablecoins #Payments #Crypto #Remittances #Fintech #PodcastDrop

Payments infrastructure company Modern Treasury applied to the OCC on Oct 5, 2026 to set up Modern Treasury National Trust Bank. It is a filing, not an approval: nothing has been approved yet.If approved, the proposed limited-purpose national trust bank would add federally supervised digital asset custody and related fiat services to Modern Treasury's payments platform, giving customers one way to custody and move stablecoins and fiat. Modern Treasury says the bank would not make loans or issue stablecoins, and that its existing software and payment service provider business would keep running separately. The filing landed the same day as Rain's OCC trust-bank application, and three days after the Independent Community Bankers of America sued the OCC, arguing that national trust charters for crypto firms are a "side door" into banking without CRA duties, capital and liquidity standards, or FDIC insurance.In this OnlyFintechs episode we walk through what was filed and what is still pending:What Modern Treasury actually filed for, and why "filed" isn't "approved"What a limited-purpose national trust bank can and can't doWhy a payments software company wants its own federally supervised custodian for stablecoinsTwo trust-bank filings in one day: Modern Treasury and RainThe bank lobby's case against the trust-charter wave, and the lock-in question for customersKeywords: Modern Treasury, Modern Treasury National Trust Bank, OCC, national trust bank, trust charter, stablecoin custody, digital asset custody, Matt Marcus, ICBA, Rain, payments infrastructure, fintech charter.#ModernTreasury #OCC #TrustBank #Stablecoins #BankCharters #Payments #Fintech #PodcastDrop