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The fintechs that refuse to stand still

  • Robinhood, Upstart, and LendingClub tell a bigger story about where fintech is likely headed in 2026.
  • Robinhood is chasing the frontier, Upstart is testing its own limits, and LendingClub is proving that sometimes, the most radical thing a fintech can do is simply perform like a bank.
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The fintechs that refuse to stand still

    The trajectories of Robinhood, Upstart, and LendingClub highlight the broader fintech trends heading into 2026


    The latest round of earnings from Robinhood, Upstart, and LendingClub reads less like a scoreboard and more like a temperature check on what fintech even means now. Each firm, in its own way, is evolving past the product it was born with – the trading app, the AI-driven lender, the online credit marketplace – and chasing something harder: resilience.

    But how they’re getting there couldn’t look more different.

    Robinhood: From trades to everything

    Robinhood’s early years were about giving retail traders a seat at the table, but its recent quarters have been about building a whole new table.


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