How AI is rewiring Payment Orchestration Stack; Credit card transaction processing flow by Stripe; 3 Markets Fueling the Shift to Agentic Commerce

Daily news on Payments Wrap Up

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐀𝐈 𝐈𝐬 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐚𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐎𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐛𝐲 IXOPAY

Deep Dive of the Week

What a16z’s “State of Crypto 2025” Really Says About Stablecoins and AI

Crypto in 2025 is looking less like a rebellious teenager and more like a young adult at the big kids’ table (albeit one still wearing a hoodie). Andreessen Horowitz’s “State of Crypto 2025” report dubs this “the year crypto went mainstream,” and for good reason. From stablecoins suddenly acting as the fastest money on the internet to AI and crypto teaming up in unexpected ways, the once-fringe industry is stepping into the spotlight.

In this Fintech Wrap Up, we’ll dive into two major themes from the report — the mainstreaming of stablecoins and the convergence of AI and crypto — with a conversational (and occasionally irreverent) spin. Buckle up: 2025 was the year crypto got comfortable in the mainstream, but not without raising a few new questions along the way.

Deep Dive: What a16z's "State of Crypto 2025" Really Says About Stablecoins and AI

This week’s reports

Embedded finance has officially moved from experiment to infrastructure

1️⃣Embedded finance has officially moved from experiment to infrastructure

2️⃣Crypto’s Grown-Up Moment: My Take on a16z’s State of Crypto 2025

3️⃣AI, Identity, and the Rising Cost of Fraud

4️⃣PitchBook’s Q3 2025 Fintech & Payments Valuation Guide paints a fascinating picture of an industry in transition

5️⃣How to Turn Embedded Payments into a Growth Engine for Your SaaS Platform by Stripe

6️⃣𝐄𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐝 — 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐒𝐦𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐁𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐀𝐫𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐍𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐁𝐢𝐠 𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐄𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐝𝐝𝐞𝐝 𝐅𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞

7️⃣Explained — Why Stablecoins Are Imperfect — but Inevitable

This week’s insights

1️⃣Why Embedded Finance providers must focus on SMBs

2️⃣3 Markets Fueling the Shift to Agentic Commerce

3️⃣How Payrails Defines the Lack of Omnichannel Payment Integrations in the Hospitality Industry

4️⃣Credit card transaction processing flow by Stripe

5️⃣5-step Agent Commerce Protocol (ACP) Job Lifecycle by Virtuals Protocol

6️⃣How AI Is Changing Payments Orchestration by IXOPAY

7️⃣𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐀𝐈 𝐈𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐰𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐚𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐎𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐤

Why Embedded Finance providers must focus on SMBs

Let’s break it down!

SMBs make up over 90% of businesses globally and drive 40% of U.S. GDP, yet remain largely underserved. For embedded finance providers, that gap represents the next trillion-dollar opportunity.

1. The third wave is all about SMBs

According to Portage’s Next Wave of Embedded Finance (2025) report, the third wave of embedded finance is shifting focus from consumers to businesses — particularly SMBs. Only 40% of SMBs are satisfied with their current banking providers, and half are unhappy with lending solutions. Nearly one-third complain about the lack of customization, and 25% say they’d switch providers for more transparent pricing. Most tellingly, half of SMBs are open to buying financial services directly from non-financial platforms, such as accounting or SaaS tools.

2. Distribution is already built-in

Vertical SaaS platforms, accounting tools, and marketplaces are where SMBs live — and that’s where embedded finance can thrive. More than 35% of SMBs say they would buy financial services through vertical SaaS, and over 25% would do so via accounting or e-commerce platforms. These systems already hold rich operational and transaction data — the lifeblood for embedded underwriting, credit scoring, and contextual product delivery.

3. Payments show the blueprint

As noted in the Portage report, fintech solutions already dominate payments in U.S. e-commerce, and payments now make up a significant share of revenue for leading software companies like Toast, Shopify, and Intuit QuickBooks. According to a Flagship Advisory Partners survey, every software platform that offers embedded finance today also provides payment acceptance services.

This shows where the model works best: when financial products are directly integrated into daily workflows. Payments paved the way, and now the same embedded rails are expanding into lending, banking, accounting, payroll, and insurance.

4. A trillion-dollar opportunity — beyond payments

Embedded finance as a whole is projected to surpass US$1 trillion by 2032, growing at a 32% CAGR. While embedded payments (~US$30B market) have matured, verticals like embedded lending (US$14B), banking (US$14B), and insurance (US$10B) are scaling fast — each growing around 20% annually. Even smaller verticals like accounting and payroll (US$1–3B) show outsized growth potential, driven by automation and compliance needs.

5. Data, trust, and stickiness

SMBs that adopt embedded tools tend to stay — deeply integrated financial features become hard to replace. Portage notes that embedded providers benefit from sticky relationships with platforms due to the “integration overhead” and the time required to train models for new customer bases. Once embedded into a payroll or accounting workflow, switching becomes costly, ensuring recurring revenue and strong partner retention.

Insight Continues

Thanks for reading Fintech Wrap Up!

Disclaimer:

Fintech Wrap Up aggregates publicly available information for informational purposes only. Portions of the content may be reproduced verbatim from the original source, and full credit is provided with a “Source: [Name]” attribution. All copyrights and trademarks remain the property of their respective owners. Fintech Wrap Up does not guarantee the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of the aggregated content; these are the responsibility of the original source providers. Links to the original sources may not always be included. For questions or concerns, please contact us at sam.boboev@fintechwrapup.com.