The three giants bet $17 million, FIN makes a strong entry into cross-border payments

Title: “Pantera, Sequoia, and Samsung Join Forces to Bet on FIN, Challenging Traditional Banks’ Market Share?”

Author: KarenZ

Source:

Repost: Mars Finance

In the current global financial system, large-scale cross-border transfers are still plagued by issues such as “slow settlement, high fees, and cumbersome processes.” A startup called FIN is directly addressing this pain point through stablecoins, aiming to rewrite the industry’s status quo.

Founded by two former Citadel employees, FIN is not just a small player on the fringe but is building a large-scale payment infrastructure using stablecoin technology, dedicated to providing instant and efficient cross-border transfer experiences for enterprises and high-net-worth individuals.

In early December 2025, FIN announced the completion of a $17 million funding round, led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Sequoia and Samsung Next. This capital endorsement highlights its potential in the sector.

So, what kind of product is FIN? What is its background? How will it be implemented and operated in the future? This article will take you on an in-depth exploration.

Core Positioning of FIN

Many people’s first impression of this team comes from its predecessor TipLink—a lightweight tool supporting encrypted asset transfers via URL links, supporting the Solana network with zero fees.

But with its rebranding to FIN, its goal has been upgraded to “challenging traditional banks with a global payment app,” focusing on meeting the needs of users and enterprises for large transfers of hundreds of thousands of dollars, supporting transfers to other FIN users, direct deposits into bank accounts, or circulation through cryptocurrency channels, among other scenarios.

Ian Krotinsky, CEO of FIN, explicitly stated in an interview with Fortune magazine that the company’s core goal is to create “the payment app of the future”: fully leveraging the technological advantages of stablecoins while stripping away their complex professional barriers to enable seamless global usage.

This positioning aligns well with current trends in the stablecoin sector.

Core Team: Quantitative DNA + Pain Point-Driven

One of FIN’s core competitive advantages lies in the strong backgrounds of its founding team.

· Co-founder and CEO Ian Krotinsky: Before founding the project in 2022, he worked from 2016 to 2022 as a quantitative portfolio manager and trader at the top hedge fund Citadel, and previously served as a systematic trader at Goldman Sachs.

· Co-founder and CTO Aashiq Dheeraj: Worked as a quantitative researcher at Citadel Securities from 2018 to 2022.

According to Fortune magazine, during their time at Citadel, the two often developed various hacking projects during evenings and weekends, including a Reddit-like platform where users could earn $50 if their posts made it to the front page. This experience gave them a deep understanding of the inefficiencies and high costs of traditional cross-border transfers, ultimately motivating them to use blockchain technology to solve these industry pain points.

According to FIN’s official website, team members also have backgrounds at Google, Meta, Uber, and the US-based digital bank Chime.

Funding History

As early as February 2023, TipLink completed a $6 million seed round led by Sequoia Capital and Multicoin Capital, with participation from Solana Ventures, Circle Ventures, Paxos, and others.

Nearly three years later, on December 3, 2025, FIN announced the completion of a $17 million Series A funding round, led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Sequoia Capital and Samsung Next. Industry veterans such as Helius CEO Mert, Stripe’s stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge CEO Zach Abrams, Ellipsis Labs co-founder Jarry Xiao, and Tensor co-founder Richard Wu joined as angel investors.

From TipLink to FIN: How Does the Project Operate?

As mentioned earlier, FIN’s predecessor was TipLink. TipLink is a lightweight wallet, with its biggest innovation being that the link itself is a non-custodial wallet, currently supporting only the Solana network and charging no fees.

TipLink has built a mature lightweight payment ecosystem:

· Ordinary users can log in via Web3 wallets or Google accounts, create TipLinks, and share them via SMS, Discord, email, or other platforms. Recipients can activate the wallet automatically by logging in with Gmail, enabling asset holding, transfer, or secondary distribution;

· Enterprise-level product TipLink Pro supports token or NFT asset distribution through a single control panel;

· Developer-oriented TipLink Wallet Adapter supports quick wallet integration, allowing users to complete transaction signing with just a Google account.

The rebranded FIN has not disclosed all details but has clarified five core operational logics:

· Built on USDC stablecoin: FIN supports using USDC, a dollar-pegged stablecoin, as the settlement medium. Jeremy Allaire, co-founder and CEO of Circle, demonstrated that the seamless connection between USDC corporate accounts and payments, along with the interoperability between fiat and crypto in the background, provides an efficient user experience.

· Focus on “high-value transactions”: Unlike TipLink’s early focus on small-scale C-end (personal) transfers and many market small-payment apps targeting retail users, FIN concentrates on high-value institutional transactions, including asset transfers for high-net-worth individuals, import-export trade settlements, and internal cross-border allocations for multinational companies.

· Hub for fiat and digital assets: As Jeremy Allaire mentioned, thanks to the interoperability between fiat and cryptocurrencies in the background, users can convert fiat into stablecoins for cross-border transfer, and recipients can choose to hold stablecoins or withdraw directly to local bank accounts via FIN’s compliant channels.

· Revenue model: According to Fortune magazine, FIN states that its income will come from transaction fees, which will be lower for users compared to other alternatives. Additionally, FIN will earn interest income from stablecoins held in the FIN wallet.

· “De-Crypto-ization” experience: Ian Krotinsky openly states that FIN aims to leverage the advantages of stablecoins while avoiding their complexity. Users of FIN do not need to understand gas fees, private keys, or on-chain confirmations.

Summary

From TipLink’s single-point “link transfer” feature to FIN’s “payment platform,” the underlying trend is the transformation of Web3 payment from “fun” to “user-friendly” and “commercialized.”

If TipLink allowed users to experience the convenience of “sending money via link,” FIN’s goal is to make this convenience a daily standard for global commerce.

In the increasingly crowded stablecoin sector, FIN, with its quant-driven team, clear institutional positioning, and compatibility with traditional finance, is a long-term player worth关注.

FIN has announced an upcoming pilot project targeting import-export enterprises. For such companies, cross-border payment efficiency directly impacts supply chain turnover, and FIN’s “instant settlement” service could further promote efficiency in the cross-border payment industry.