Original title: “Pantera, Sequoia, Samsung Jointly Bet, Is FIN About to Steal Traditional Banks’ Business?”
Original author: KarenZ, Foresight News
In the current global financial system, large cross-border transfers still suffer from “slow arrival, high fees, and cumbersome processes.” A startup named FIN is directly addressing this pain point using stablecoins, attempting to rewrite the industry’s status quo.
As a project founded by two former Citadel employees, FIN is not playing around at the edges but is building a large-value payment rail through stablecoin technology, dedicated to providing instant, efficient cross-border transfer experiences for businesses 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. The capital recognition highlights its track potential.
So, what exactly is FIN as a product? What is its background? And how will it operate in the future? This article will take you through it all.
FIN’s Core Positioning
Many people’s first impression of this team stems from its predecessor TipLink—a lightweight tool supporting encrypted asset transfers via URL links, supporting the Solana network with zero fees.
However, after rebranding, FIN’s goal has upgraded to “challenging traditional banks’ global payment App,” focusing on meeting user and business needs for multi-million dollar large-value transfers, supporting diverse scenarios such as transfers to other FIN users, direct deposits into bank accounts, or flows through cryptocurrency channels.
FIN CEO Ian Krotinsky explicitly stated in an interview with Fortune magazine that the company’s core goal is to build “the payment app of the future”: fully leveraging the technical advantages of stablecoins while stripping away their complex professional barriers, enabling barrier-free use worldwide.
This positioning precisely aligns with the current development trend in the stablecoin track.
Core Team: Quantitative DNA + Pain-Point Driven
One of FIN’s core competitive strengths lies in the hardcore background of its founding team.
· FIN Co-founder and CEO Ian Krotinsky: Before founding this project in 2022, he served as a quantitative portfolio manager and trader at top hedge fund Citadel from 2016 to 2022, and previously worked as a programmatic trader at Goldman Sachs.
· FIN Co-founder and CTO Aashiq Dheeraj: Served as a quantitative researcher at Citadel Securities from 2018 to 2022.
According to Fortune magazine, during their time working together at Citadel, the two often developed various hack projects during nights and weekends, including a Reddit-like platform where users could earn a $50 reward if they got their posts to the front page. It was this experience that made them deeply aware of the inefficiency and high costs of traditional cross-border transfers, ultimately deciding to leverage blockchain technology to solve this industry pain point.
According to FIN’s official website, the team also includes members with backgrounds from companies like Google, Meta, Uber, and leading U.S. digital bank Chime.
Funding History
As early as February 2023, TipLink completed a $6 million seed funding 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’s investment arm Samsung Next. Several industry veterans joined as angel investors, including Helius CEO mert, Bridge CEO Zach Abrams (Stripe’s stablecoin infrastructure company), Ellipsis Labs Co-founder Jarry Xiao, Tensor Co-founder Richard Wu, and others.
From TipLink to FIN: How Does the Project Operate?
As mentioned earlier, FIN’s predecessor is TipLink. TipLink is a lightweight wallet, with its biggest innovation being that the link itself is a non-custodial wallet, currently only supporting the Solana network and charging no fees.
TipLink has built a mature lightweight payment ecosystem:
· Ordinary users can log in via a Web3 wallet or Google account, create a TipLink and share it via any platform like SMS, Discord, email, etc.; the recipient can activate the wallet automatically by logging in with Gmail, enabling asset holding, transfer, or redistribution;
· The enterprise product TipLink Pro supports distributing tokens or NFT assets through a single control panel;
· The developer-oriented TipLink Wallet Adapter supports rapid integration of wallet functionality, allowing users to complete transaction signing with just a Google account.
Although the revamped FIN has not disclosed all details, it has clarified five core operational logics:
· Using Stablecoin USDC as the Foundation: FIN supports using the USDC dollar stablecoin as the settlement medium. Regarding a demo released by FIN, Circle Co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire stated that the seamless connection between USDC enterprise accounts and payments, along with the interoperability between fiat and cryptocurrency in the backend, delivers an efficient user experience.
· Focusing on “High-Value Transactions”: Unlike TipLink’s early focus on C-end (individual) small transfers and many small-value payment apps in the market targeting C-end and retail users, FIN concentrates on high-value institutional-level transactions. Use cases include asset transfers for high-net-worth individuals, import-export trade settlements, internal transfers within multinational corporations, and similar scenarios.
· A Hub for Fiat Currency and Digital Assets: As Jeremy Allaire mentioned, thanks to the interoperability between fiat and cryptocurrency in the backend, users can convert fiat to stablecoins for cross-border transmission; recipients can choose to retain the stablecoins or cash out directly to a local bank account through FIN’s compliant channels.
· Where Does Revenue Come From? According to Fortune magazine, FIN states that its revenue will come from fees, but for users, these fees will be lower than other alternatives. Additionally, FIN will also generate income from interest earned on stablecoins held in FIN wallets.
· “De-Crypto” Experience: Ian Krotinsky直言, FIN aims to leverage the advantages of stablecoins while discarding their complexity. When using FIN, users do not need to understand what gas fees are, what private keys are, or what on-chain confirmations are.
Summary
Evolving from TipLink’s single-point feature of “link transfers” to FIN’s “payment platform” reflects the shift in the Web3 payment track from “fun” to “useful” and “commercialized.”
If TipLink allowed users to experience the convenience of “sending money by sending a link,” then FIN’s goal is to make this convenience a daily standard for global commercial trade.
In the increasingly crowded stablecoin track, FIN, with its team’s quantitative DNA, clear institutional-level positioning, and compatibility with traditional finance, becomes a player worth long-term attention.
FIN has hinted at launching pilot projects for import-export businesses soon. For such enterprises, cross-border payment efficiency directly affects supply chain turnover efficiency, and the “instant arrival” service provided by FIN may further drive efficiency in the cross-border payment industry.
