M&A, Stablecoins for Stripe and Meta, and Bitcoin above $100K

👋 Hi all! Welcome to another week of Fintech Stuff.

Whirlwind of a week, and not just because of Stripe Sessions here in San Francisco.

1) Bitcoin above $100k (close to all time high of $109k)

2) Coinbase × $3.2b acquisition of Deribit sets record

3) Stripe pushes stablecoins to 100+ countries

4) Meta re‑enters stablecoins (RIP Libra, hello instagram creator payouts)

5)Visa backs BVNK in $50m deal for stablecoin rails

6) Cash App turns on free global Lightning 

7) Ramp rolls out stablecoin cards

8) Coinbase’s Base L2 hits 1.6 M DAUs (+43 % WoW)

9) Ethereum ships major upgrade (Pectra upgrade allows smart accounts, increased staking, L2 scalability)

10) Robinhood building its own crypto stack (enables European retail investors to trade tokenized U.S. securities.)

11) Congress drops FIT21 2.0 bill (comprehensive regulatory framework for digital assets)

Did I miss anything?

3 links:

1️⃣ I have had several portfolio companies leave Stripe recently, and this is a great sign for fintech.

2️⃣ Map of NYC fintech companies. Who are we missing?

3️⃣ More details on Stripe's big Stablecoin announcement. (Plus: my interview with Bridge founder Zack Abrams).