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Simon Taylor

@sytaylor

Jul 18

We just lived through most consequential 24 hours in financial services law for the past two decades.

And it will bring the biggest transformation of financial technology since the 1970s.

Here's what happened and why it matters 👇

What Happened? 🤔

1. The GENIUS Act passed with a 308-122 bi-partisan vote in the House and is heading to the Presidents desk.

2. The CLARITY Act, clarifying SEC vs CFTC oversight passed House 294-133

3. Anti-CBDC Bill, prohibiting a retail CBDC also passed the house.

The last major bill was Dodd-Frank in 2010 which among other things:

1. Created capital requirements on banks - arguably making them less profitable

2. Carved out smaller banks (Sub $10bn in assets) to have less stringent oversight and make more from even swipe fee.

Read 9 tweets

Simon Taylor

@sytaylor

Jul 2

While everyone is debating Stablecoins. Pay by Bank is quietly becoming a FORCE in payments.

TrueLayer just launched Pay by Bank with Stripe in Germany.

But here's the timeline that explains why this matters:

2019: "What's Pay by Bank?"
2021: "Interesting experiment in the UK"
2023: "We should probably test this"
2024: Every major PSP picks their dance partner
2025: The invasion begins

Stripe + TrueLayer aren't just expanding to Germany.

They're taking the fight directly to Adyen + Tink's strongest market.

The numbers that explain why this was inevitable:
→ TrueLayer processes €1.4B annually in Germany
→ Merchants see 42% conversion uplift with Pay by Bank
→ Card fees: 1.5-2.9% vs Pay by Bank: 0.1-0.3%

Read 5 tweets

Simon Taylor

@sytaylor

Jun 26

Why did Kalshi just raise $185m at a $2bn valuation more than DOUBLE Polymarket's recent reported $1bn?

- Polymarket dominated election coverage.
- Had 10X the volume.
- Every journalist quoted their odds.
- They owned the narrative.
- But they can't touch US users.

The biggest prediction market in history... banned from its biggest market.

Kalshi is CFTC-regulated and able to advertise to US customers.

But what about prediction markets generally? Isn't it just gambling?

When you can't afford a house, can't trust institutions, can't build wealth through traditional means... why not bet on elections?

This is financial nihilism pricing in.

The social contract broke.

Prediction markets filled the void.

Young Americans are gambling because the "legitimate" path to wealth feels rigged anyway. Same odds, different casino.

But institutions see something else entirely.

- Paradigm didn't invest in sports betting.
- They invested in the infrastructure for conditional finance.
- Prediction markets are just conditional settlement rails.

Today it's "Will Trump win?" Tomorrow it's insurance contracts, derivatives, conditional payments.

If x outcome happens pay y to person z.

Read 6 tweets

Simon Taylor

@sytaylor

Jun 20

🚨 BREAKING: Revolut — the neobank with 50M customers — is quietly building its own stablecoin.

Does everyone need their own stablecoin? Can this threaten Circle and Tether's dominance?

Revolut has a distribution advantage:

- 50M active customers
- Full banking in 30+ countries (EU + UK + MX)
- Live crypto exchange already running (Revolut X)
- Crypto support in their core product

Is this a good business case?

If they got to $7.5B in stablecoin assets at current treasury yield that's ~$300M+ annual revenue

- Tether made $5.2B profit last year.
- Circle has to give away most of its profit for distribution
- Revolut *already has distribution*

Read 6 tweets

Simon Taylor

@sytaylor

May 26

Visa wants to give AI Agents "tokens" so they can pay without you ever seeing a checkout page.

Visa's CEO told investors this is their #1 priority.

Here's how it will work 👇

Imagine telling your Agent.

"I want a signed Pedro Pascal shirt from The Last of Us" don't spend more than $100" -

Then you tap your phone.

The next thing you know, the payment is complete.

Let's unpack the flow as I understood it 👀

1. Tap a card to a device to get a token for their AI Agent
2. The AI Agent registers with the network as a "trusted wallet" in the same way Apple Pay can register with networks and processors
3. The user gives the AI Agent a mandate (Find a Pedro Pascal shirt, don't spend more than $100)
4. The Auth instructions are finalized ($100 budget, Pedro shirt)
5. The Auth instructions define when step-up or biometric authentication is required (e.g. > $100, or some level of fraud risk detected)
6. The auth instructions are matched between the Agent, and the network at the Merchant (e.g. This agent has a mandate to buy for a max of $100 this SKU)
7. The payment is complete. BUT, Liability remains with the merchant for fraud (!!)

Read 6 tweets

Simon Taylor

@sytaylor

Mar 31

A founder sold her startup to JPMorgan for $175M.

The bank thought they were getting 4 million customers.

They actually got 300,000.

Now she's going to prison.

The Charlie Javice story is a masterclass in how NOT to exit your startup...

Charlie Javice founded Frank, a financial aid platform for students. By 2021, she'd raised over $20M from notable investors.

She'd even been featured in Forbes 30 Under 30.

JPMorgan saw a golden opportunity: acquire Frank and sell banking products to millions of students.

But there was one problem...

Frank didn't have millions of users. Not even close.
When JPMorgan asked for customer data during due diligence, Javice faced a choice:

- Walk away from $175M
- Create fake customers

She chose option B.

Read 12 tweets

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