Client–bank relationships have long revolved around a destination model: clients log in, navigate dashboards, export data, assemble insights. Grasshopper Bank is rewriting that dynamic by moving from a destination to a ‘layer’.
The digital bank has launched its MCP server to bridge a critical gap: letting clients use modern AI tools with their financial data without sacrificing banking security or control.
The digital wallet space is crowded, but Paze is betting that consumer trust in banks — not tech giants — is the unlock.
In this episode, Serge Elkiner, General Manager of Paze at Early Warning Services, breaks down how the bank-backed wallet is building toward critical mass through merchant expansion, issuer growth, and a deliberate focus on the consumers other wallets haven't won yet.
Stripe is making moves to dominate every layer of payments, from a potential PayPal acquisition to AI billing tools and stablecoin infrastructure.
Stripe processed $1.9T in volume, its new AI billing tool tracks LLM usage in real time, and its x402 integration lets AI agents send and receive stablecoin payments autonomously.
At a time when payment winners must command either infrastructure or interface, PayPal is awkwardly positioned between the two.
The questions now are: Where does PayPal sit in the payments ecosystem, and does that position still matter? What unique role does it play in a stack that increasingly bypasses middle layers?
