Fintech Highlights — January 2026

Capital One made the biggest bank-fintech deal ever. 

The bank agreed to acquire Brex for $5.15 billion — less than half the $12 billion valuation Brex commanded in its 2022 fundraise, but a long-awaited exit for investors during a frozen IPO market. Brex has been losing ground to rival Ramp, which raised at a $32 billion valuation just two months earlier, making the discounted price look less like a bargain and more like a sign of how competitive corporate cards have gotten.

Apple switched credit card partners. 

JPMorgan struck a deal to replace Goldman Sachs as the issuer of the Apple Card, taking over roughly $20 billion in customer balances at a discount — a rare term for these programs. It closes the book on one of the more visibly troubled parts of Goldman's retreat from consumer banking, which had drawn a CFPB fine in 2024.

Crypto's IPO window reopened, cautiously. 

BitGo became the first crypto company to go public this year, popping 25% on its NYSE debut and raising $213 million at a $2.1 billion valuation — a decent signal for Kraken and Grayscale, both of which have also filed to go public, even as bitcoin sits 28% below its October highs.

Also this month: 

• Andreessen Horowitz's crypto funds continued to outperform its general venture funds by a wide margin;
• PayPal acquired Cymbio to help merchants sell through AI shopping agents like ChatGPT and Gemini; and
• Alpaca, the stock-trading API, raised $150M at a $1.15B valuation.