Pantera, Sequoia, and Samsung team up to bet, is FIN aiming to take over traditional banks' jobs?

Article by: KarenZ, Foresight News

In the current global financial system, large-scale cross-border transfers still suffer from issues such as “slow arrival, high fees, and complicated processes.” A startup called FIN is leveraging stablecoins to directly address this pain point, attempting to rewrite the industry landscape.

As a project founded by two former Citadel employees, FIN is not just making small waves on the fringes 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 Sequoia and Samsung Next participating. The capital recognition highlights its potential in this sector.

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

FIN’s Core Positioning

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

FIN CEO Ian Krotinsky explicitly 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 enable seamless global use.

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 at the top hedge fund Citadel as a quantitative portfolio manager and trader, 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 industry pain points.

According to FIN’s official website, team members also have backgrounds at Google, Meta, Uber, and the US-headquartered 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 Sequoia Capital and Samsung Next participating. 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, while not disclosing all details, has clarified five core operational logics:

• Using USDC as the base: FIN supports USDC, a USD stablecoin, as its 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.

• Focusing on “high-value transactions”: Unlike TipLink’s early focus on small-scale C-end (personal) transfers and many market applications targeting retail small payments, FIN concentrates on high-value institutional transactions, including asset transfers for high-net-worth individuals, import-export trade settlements, and internal cross-border corporate transfers.

• A 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 retain 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-function “link transfer” to FIN’s “payment platform,” the evolution reflects the Web3 payment sector’s shift from “fun” to “user-friendly” and “commercialized.”

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

In the increasingly crowded stablecoin sector, FIN, with its team’s quant-driven DNA, clear institutional focus, and compatibility with traditional finance, is a long-term player worth watching.

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 arrival” service could further promote efficiency in the cross-border payment industry.