Original Title: "Pantera, Sequoia, and Samsung Join Forces to Bet: Is FIN Going to Steal Traditional Banks' Jobs?"
Original Author: KarenZ, Foresight News
In the current global financial system, large cross-border transfers are still plagued by "slow arrival times, high fees, and complicated processes." A startup named FIN is directly addressing this pain point by leveraging stablecoins, attempting to rewrite the status quo of the industry.
Founded by two former Citadel employees, FIN is not just dabbling on the fringes; it is building a large payment track through stablecoin technology, aiming to provide instant and 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 potential in the market.
So, what kind of product is FIN? What is its background? How will it operate in the future? This article will take you on a deep dive.
Core Positioning of FIN
Many people's first impression of this team comes from its predecessor, TipLink—a lightweight tool that supports the transfer of crypto assets via URL links, compatible with the Solana network and free of charge.
However, after rebranding to FIN, its goal has upgraded to "challenging traditional banks with a global payment app," focusing on meeting the large transfer needs of users and businesses in the millions of dollars, supporting transfers to other FIN users, direct deposits into bank accounts, or circulation through cryptocurrency channels in various scenarios.
FIN's CEO Ian Krotinsky clearly stated in an interview with Fortune magazine that the company's core goal is to create "the payment application of the future": fully leveraging the technological advantages of stablecoins while stripping away their complex professional barriers to achieve seamless global use.
This positioning aligns perfectly with the current development trends in the stablecoin sector.
Core Team: Quantitative Background + Pain Point Driven
One of FIN's core competitive advantages lies in the hard-core background of its founding team.
FIN Co-founder and CEO Ian Krotinsky: Before founding the project in 2022, he served as a quantitative portfolio manager and trader at the top hedge fund Citadel from 2016 to 2022, and previously worked as a program trader at Goldman Sachs.
FIN Co-founder and CTO Aashiq Dheeraj: He worked as a quantitative researcher at Citadel Securities from 2018 to 2022.
According to Fortune magazine, during their time at Citadel, the two often utilized evenings and weekends to develop various hack projects, including a Reddit-like platform where users could earn $50 if their posts made it to the homepage. This experience gave them a deep understanding of the inefficiencies and high costs of traditional cross-border transfers, ultimately leading them to decide to leverage blockchain technology to address this industry pain point.
According to FIN's official website, the team members also have backgrounds from companies like Google, Meta, Uber, and the leading U.S. digital bank Chime.
Funding Journey
As early as February 2023, TipLink completed a $6 million seed round of funding, 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. Several industry veterans, including Helius CEO mert, Bridge CEO Zach Abrams from Stripe, Ellipsis Labs co-founder Jarry Xiao, and Tensor co-founder Richard Wu, joined as angel investors.
From TipLink to FIN: How the Project Operates?
As mentioned earlier, FIN was formerly known as 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 through SMS, Discord, email, or any platform. The recipient can log in with Gmail to automatically activate the wallet, enabling asset holding, transfer, or redistribution.
The enterprise-level product TipLink Pro supports token or NFT asset distribution through a single control panel.
The TipLink Wallet Adapter for developers supports quick integration of wallet functions, allowing users to complete transaction signing with just a Google account.
Although the restructured FIN has not disclosed all details, it has clearly defined five core operational logics:
- Using USDC as the Base: FIN supports using the USDC stablecoin as a settlement medium. Circle co-founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire stated in a demonstration for FIN that the seamless connection of USDC business accounts and payments, along with the interoperability of fiat and cryptocurrency in the background, provides an efficient user experience.
· Focusing on "High-Value Transactions": Unlike TipLink's early focus on small transfers for individual consumers and many small payment applications targeting retail users, FIN focuses on high-value institutional transactions, with use cases including asset transfers for high-net-worth individuals, import and export trade settlements, and internal allocations for multinational corporations.
· A Hub for Fiat and Digital Assets: As Jeremy Allaire mentioned, thanks to the interoperability of fiat and cryptocurrency in the background, users can convert fiat into stablecoins for cross-border transfers, and recipients can choose to retain the stablecoins or directly withdraw to local bank accounts through FIN's compliant channels.
· Where Does Revenue Come From? According to Fortune magazine, FIN stated that its revenue will come from transaction fees, but for users, these fees will be lower than other alternatives. Additionally, FIN will also generate revenue from interest income on stablecoins held in the FIN wallet.
· "De-Crypto" Experience: Ian Krotinsky stated that FIN aims to leverage the advantages of stablecoins while discarding their complexities. Users do not need to understand what gas fees, private keys, or on-chain confirmations are when using FIN.
Summary
From TipLink's "link transfer" single-point function, evolving into FIN's "payment platform," reflects the shift in the Web3 payment sector from "fun" to "usable" 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 in global commercial trade.
In an increasingly crowded stablecoin sector, FIN stands out as a player worth long-term attention due to its team's quantitative background, clear institutional positioning, and compatibility with traditional finance.
FIN has revealed that it will soon launch a pilot project targeting import and export enterprises. For these businesses, the efficiency of cross-border payments directly impacts supply chain turnover efficiency, and the "instant arrival" service provided by FIN may further enhance the efficiency of the cross-border payment industry.
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