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In this episode: Banking Dive | Payments Dive | Digital Transactions | Finextra | PR Newswire | Business Wire | The Defiant | The Paypers | Reuters | Financial IT | Business of Payments (Substack)

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📰 Your Inbox Last Night 📅 March 18, 2025 | Fintech & Payments Industry Insights

🍀 Good morning! If you're nursing a bit of a post-St. Paddy's Day headache, pour yourself a green smoothie—it's basically the healthy version of yesterday’s green beer, right? Now, let's dive into the fintech news you might have missed while celebrating!

📢 Top Headlines • Reuters reveals Russia employs cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ether, and Tether in oil transactions with China and India to circumvent Western sanctions. 📎 Read More

• SEC rejects major US banks' attempts to exclude climate and social proposals from shareholder votes, reinforcing ESG importance in corporate governance. 📎 Read More

• JPMorgan Chase reports gender workforce parity globally could take over a century despite some progress. 📎 Read More

• Klarna significantly reduces workforce due to AI integration, ahead of anticipated IPO. 📎 Read More

• Block challenges payday lenders with affordable short-term consumer loans through Cash App. 📎 Read More

🔥 The Big Story — Intersection of Payments and Politics — Editorial

Ok, let's head over to today's Big Story The Crypto-Oil Nexus – Russia, Sanctions, and America’s New Crypto Crush

If you’ve been keeping an eye on both geopolitics and the digital asset space (because, really, who isn’t these days?), you might have noticed something interesting—Russia is quietly making crypto an essential part of its oil trade strategy, and at the same time, the Trump administration seems to have developed a sudden fascination with all things blockchain. Coincidence? Maybe. But let’s dig a little deeper.

🛢️ Russia’s Crypto Workaround

As Reuters revealed, yesterday, Russia is now actively using Bitcoin, Ether, and Tether in transactions with China and India to bypass Western sanctions.

This isn’t just a theory—it’s happening. Western-led financial restrictions have made it difficult for Russia to move money internationally, and, as we folks in this industry know, tokenized currencies are the perfect cross-border payment method.

The beauty of this approach? Crypto provides a decentralized, censorship-resistant way to convert Chinese yuan and Indian rupees into roubles—without ever needing to touch the SWIFT banking system. No banks, no middlemen, no U.S. oversight. It’s a workaround that, frankly, Western regulators should have seen coming from miles away.

... or did they?

Now, here’s where it gets really interesting. For years, the U.S. government (under both parties) has had a complicated relationship with crypto. From SEC lawsuits against exchanges to senators calling Bitcoin a tool for criminals, Washington’s stance has generally been: "We don’t like it, but we really don’t like you using it without our control."

This, of course, has frustrated folks from Bitcoin-Boy to Marc Andreesen because, well, regulation - bad, decentralized anonymous currency - good. To be fair, there have been arguments that the United States' regulatory hurdles have strangled innovation and investment in the space, stalling digital currency use far beyond what is happening in other countries, specifically in Asia.

But just as you were thinking the U.S. having Russia as its bright, shiny, new ally was a BAD thing, enter Trump 2.0.

The new administration has taken a hard pivot toward embracing crypto. From pro-crypto executive orders establishing a strategic reserve in a currently very volatile Bitcoin, to the abandonment of just about every SEC action opposing crypto exchanges and companies, it's not only happening ... it's happened all at once and very quickly.

For an administration that once toyed with outright bans, this is a 180-degree turn that deserves some scrutiny.

🤝 Russia + Crypto = U.S. Policy Shift?

Could the U.S.’s new enthusiasm for digital assets have something to do with the fact that our new geopolitical ally, Russia, is using crypto to avoid sanctions imposed by most NATO countries and grease the wheels of its global trade?

Let’s be real—if the U.S. government didn’t want Russia and it's crypto to play a bigger role in international finance, they’d be doing everything in their power to stop it. But instead, we’re seeing quite the opposite.

This sudden embrace of Bitcoin and blockchain tech could be:

1. A strategic countermeasure – If Russia is going to use crypto for trade, the U.S. might want to establish its own dominance in the space, ensuring American miners, banks, and businesses control a big slice of the crypto pie.

2. A move to sideline China – China banned crypto mining and trading on a large scale, but if crypto is about to become the alternative trade currency, the U.S. might be thinking: "Better us than them."

3. A sign of regulatory fatigue – The fight against crypto in Washington has been exhausting, and with global adoption happening anyway, the Trump administration might have just decided to lean into it instead of trying (and failing) to regulate it out of existence.

or

4. A complete and total corruption of the presidency, the U.S. banking system, and America's now-diminished standing on the global stage by some heavily invested billionaires from Palm Beach, Silicon Valley, and Moscow.

So, What Happens Next?

If the U.S. is now openly supporting crypto while Russia is actively using it to dodge sanctions, we’re in for an era where digital assets aren’t just speculative investments—they’re core components of global trade and diplomacy. Expect more pro-crypto policies from Washington, likely under the guise of financial innovation and national security.

Of course, there’s always the risk that regulators will realize they’ve given crypto too much legitimacy and attempt a last-minute crackdown. But at this point? The digital genie is out of the bottle, and no amount of Senate hearings can put it back in. Not that ... there were Senate hearings coming, or anything.

What we’re watching now is the next phase of the loss of America's global dominance—where our enemies are our friends because they can line the pockets of the White House and it's friends.

Where nations that embrace digital assets get an economic advantage, and those that resist get left behind.

And for now, it looks like both Trump and Putin are placing their bets on blockchain. Regular listeners of this podcast already know that the trump family has launched two memecoins since the November election, and as recently as this weekend were negotiating with the criminal CEO of Binance, CZ, in what appears to be a pardon-for-exchange-stake deal.

There's no actual "news" in this Big Story, because this has all been publicly known. The bricks nations' alliance just had a meeting about crypto in October of last year. If you laughed at the kooks on the internet who said Bitcoin was a tool of Putin's to crash the American economy, you might be trying to find those videos again.

But more importantly, there are some who say (and they are ALL Trump voters, by the way,) but they say by 2030 you’ll either be an infrastructure owner, or an infrastructure user. But, if we are watching  the transference of power move away from the Gold Standard American dollar and toward the finite asset that is Bitcoin, all you can do is hope you’re on the right side of it.

Stay with us, because we're on it, and It’s going to be an interesting ride.

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📊 Market Movers & Industry Trends • Zip discontinues credit card funding for BNPL in favor of debit cards, diverging from major competitors like Affirm and Afterpay. 📎 Read More

• Finextra explores financial influencers' growing online presence and the potential risks of misleading investors. 📎 Read More

• WinWinX launches the world's first person-to-person BNPL platform, aiming for financial inclusivity through direct negotiations. 📎 Read More

• Finextra details how FinTech transforms medical device payments and insurance integration, driving efficiency and patient-centric financial experiences. 📎 Read More

• The Guardian reports Sweden reconsidering cashless society amid cybersecurity concerns and promotes cash usage for civil defense preparedness. 📎 Read More

• Mastercard partners with Virgin Money for account aggregation via open banking. 📎 Read More

💡 YILN’s Quick Takes • Payments Dive highlights payment orchestration as essential for businesses scaling internationally due to regional complexities. • Cash App initiates rollout of Afterpay's pay-over-time option at thousands of merchants. • Airwallex expands global payment acceptance through partnership with Discover Global Network.

📬 Stay Connected Had fun? To keep the fintech party going, subscribe to our premium membership for exclusive press interviews, curated job opportunities, and networking access with top-level fintech execs. Your future in fintech might just depend on it!

Links to the news sources from today's episode:

Banking Dive | Women unlikely to reach parity with men for 134 years: JPMorgan | Read

Banking Dive | Klarna debuts 'buy now, pay later' AI workforce IPO | Read

Payments Dive | Block takes on payday lenders with Cash App | Read

Digital Transactions | Zip Is Halting Credit Cards as a BNPL Funding Source | Read

Finextra | Understanding the Flux in Crypto Prices Now - A Market Overview | Read

Finextra | Finfluencers: How financial influencers can mislead investors | Read

PR Newswire | WinWinX Revolutionizes Fintech with World's First Person-to-Person Buy Now, Pay Later Platform | Read

Business Wire | Cash App Begins Roll-Out of Afterpay's Pay Over Time Offering at Hundreds of Thousands of Merchants | Read

The Defiant | Crypto Market Dips As Investors Await Key Fed Decision | Read

The Paypers | Airwallex Partners With Discover Global Network for Payment Acceptance Expansion | Read

Reuters | Russia leans on cryptocurrencies for oil trade, sources say | Read

Finextra | How fintech is revolutionizing medical device payments and insurance integration | Read

Financial IT | NovoPayment Announces New Leadership to Propel Fintech Innovation | Read

Payments Dive (Sponsored) | Scaling Payments for Global Growth: Why Payment Orchestration Is the Future | Read

Business of Payments (Substack) | Business of Payments | March 2025 | Read

Hashtags: #CryptoNews #FintechInnovation #BNPL #AIWorkforce #FinancialInclusion

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