(💥Dinarian Note: I included the full article from "The Economist" Get Ready for the Phoenix Source: Economist; 01/9/88, Vol. 306, pp 9-1 for your reading pleasure 💥)
In 1988, the cover of The Economist was titled “Get ready for a world currency”. The magazine cover showed a phoenix rising from the ashes of burning US currency.
“Thirty Years from now, Americans, Japanese, Europeans and people in many other rich countries …will be paying for their shopping with the same currency”
The author continues to suggest a single unified currency that would ease the challenges and difficulties of international financial transactions.
The author also mentions a world connected like never before. Instead of the Yuan, Dollar, or Euro, this new form of currency, a “phoenix coin” would dominate. This new coin would replace the existing financial system and there would be no need for expensive international currencies or cumbersome money wires. Everyone would be using the same coin/currency.
Now just over 30 years later, this ‘prediction’ is now becoming a reality.
It’s important to realize this article was written during the early days of the internet and well before the world had ever heard of Bitcoin or cryptocurrency — Bitcoin only came into existence during the 2008 financial crisis.
Of notable mentioned is Stellar (XML), whose logo is eerily similar to the logo on the coin of the Pheonix (see below):
While I won’t get into the implications of what this means, such as this new financial system planned at least 33 years in advance, what is of more importance to the investor, is the investment opportunities this new financial system will bring.
What is Stellar (XLM)?
In case you haven’t heard of Steller, it is one of the few IS0 20022 compliant cryptocurrencies which will be part of this new financial system. Stellar is a peer-to-peer (P2P) decentralized network with the purpose of connecting the world’s financial systems and ensuring a fast and transparent protocol for payment providers and financial institutions.
Here is a List of the ISO 20022 compliant cryptocurrencies.
The ISO 20022 standard are the rules and language for cross-border and international payments. It’s the mechanism to connect financial institutions and central banks. However, for this new financial system to be implemented, central banks must also move towards a new ‘digital currency’ (with the help of the blockchain).
CBDCs in Development — Worldwide.
The last piece of this puzzle are Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). A CBDC is a new type of central bank currency that harnesses the power of the blockchain to create a digital currency.
With the standard for international payments (ISO 20022) being implemented in November, Central banks will now have the standards in place for cross-border international payments for their digital currency.
The move to CBDCs is expected to be a step toward replacing the current fiat-based currency and most all countries which have a central bank are already underway towards developing their own CBDC.
China is leading the pack and already has a pilot program in place!
New Global Reserve Currency
The creation of CBDCs will also allow alliances like BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa) to create their own ‘alliance currency’, with Russia recently reporting with the help of BRICS, will be creating their own New Global Reserve Currency.
While the ushering in of a new digital currency won’t happen overnight, November marks the beginning of the implementation of the ISO 20022 Standard — notice the year 2022 embedded in the name of the standard.
Even the recently appointed new prime minister of the UK, Rishi Sunak is already publically supporting this new initiative.
A New Financial System is Already Here
Blockchain technology is allowing for the heralding of an entirely new financial system. New cross border payment protocols like ISO 20022 and the creation of Central Bank Digital Currencies is bringing an entirely new financial system to the world.
Whether the 1988 edition of The Economist was prophetic or planned we may never know, but what is certain in we are now living in a new digital financial age.
🚨NEW: Watch @BoHines sit down with @CryptoAmerica_
Watch @BoHines sit down with @CryptoAmerica_ to discuss key details of the White House crypto report including anticipated new DOJ guidance, as well as fresh commentary on the @rstormsf trial, and the nomination of @BrianQuintenz to lead the @CFTC.
👉 Coinbase just launched an AI agent for Crypto Trading
Custom AI assistants that print money in your sleep? 🔜
The future of Crypto x AI is about to go crazy.
👉 Here’s what you need to know:
💠 'Based Agent' enables creation of custom AI agents
💠 Users set up personalized agents in < 3 minutes
💠 Equipped w/ crypto wallet and on-chain functions
💠 Capable of completing trades, swaps, and staking
💠 Integrates with Coinbase’s SDK, OpenAI, & Replit
👉 What this means for the future of Crypto:
1. Open Access: Democratized access to advanced trading
2. Automated Txns: Complex trades + streamlined on-chain activity
3. AI Dominance: Est ~80% of crypto 👉txns done by AI agents by 2025
🚨 I personally wouldn't bet against Brian Armstrong and Jesse Pollak.
👉 Coinbase just launched an AI agent for Crypto Trading
👉 Coinbase just launched an AI agent for Crypto Trading
In the latest episode of the XDC MENA Podcast, host Rebecah Dausen is joined by Amir Neghabian, founder of Vital Veda, to explore how blockchain is modernizing the way we approach Fitness.
Why you should tune in:
-Learn how decentralized systems can verify the authenticity of Fitness
-Discover how Web3 opens access to Fitness knowledge
-Understand XDC’s role in enabling trusted, wellness-driven ecosystems
Welcome back to The Epicenter, where crypto chaos meets corporate cringe.
But surprisingly, crypto has not been the most chaotic corner of the internet as of late.
That honor goes to the startup Astronomer, whose CEO’s cheating scandal broke the web in a glorious meme-fueled media frenzy. The company’s damage control? Hiring Gwyneth Paltrow as a “temporary spokesperson.” Do we think they’re grasping at straws or setting a new standard for PR?
Meanwhile, the markets didn’t blink. BTC is still flexing near its all-time highs. Michael Saylor’s bringing a bitcoin-adjacent money-market product to Wall Street. A pharma company just earmarked $700M to stack BNB, and analysts are calling time of death on the four-year crypto cycle. It’s a steady boom now, kittens.
A few things that are also worth noting: Winklevoss vs. JPMorgan, Visa’s take on stablecoins, and Robinhood’s Euro drama that defies the chillness of eurosummer.
Let’s get into it 👇
⛓️ The On-Chain Pulse: What’s Happening on the Front Lines of Finance
This week’s biggest news in crypto and all things digital assets
Senator Elizabeth Warren slammed the GENIUS Act (to absolutely no one’s surprise) warning that crypto lobbying is setting up Americans to "pay the price" like they did before the 2008 financial crisis
From meme-fueled PR stunts to Bitcoin-backed money-market funds, this week reminded us that markets move fast—and headlines move faster. With Wall Street automating itself, fintechs beefing with banks, and even your smartphone becoming a miner, anything is possible. Stay curious, stay cynical, and as always—stay sharp and stay liquid. We’ll see you back here in two weeks.
The fintech revolution is reshaping the way we manage, invest, and move money, breaking down traditional barriers and empowering individuals worldwide. As financial technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, a select group of innovative companies are leading the charge by offering groundbreaking solutions that redefine banking, payments, and digital assets. Whether you’re a savvy investor, an industry professional, or simply curious about the future of finance, discovering these trailblazing fintech companies is essential to understanding today’s dynamic financial landscape.
Alina Invest - The AI Wealth Manager for GenZ Women
Alina is aimed at women under 25 who identify as beginner investors. They're an SEC-registered investment advisor that charges $120/year for membership. The service "buys and sells for you" and gives up notification updates of recent transactions like a wealth manager would.
👉 Getting people to invest early is crucial to building long-term wealth. One thing that holds them back is a lack of confidence and experience. Being targetted "for beginners" and people who live on TikTok should appeal. I love the sense of "we're buying and selling for you." Funds always do that, but making it an engagement mechanic is very smart. The risk here is that building a wealth business will take decades for the AUM to compound. But the next generations, Wealthfront or Betterment, will look something like Alina.
2. Blue layer - The Carbon project funding platform
Bluelayer allows Carbon project developers to take from feasibility studies to issuing credits, tracking inventory, and managing orders. Developers of reforestation, conservation, direct air capture, and other projects can also directly report to industry registries.
👉 Carbon investing and tax credits are heavily incentivized but need transparent data. By focusing on the developers, Bluelayer can ensure the data, reporting, and credits lifecycle is all managed at the source. This is smart.
Akiro is a "strategic" procurement platform aiming to help enterprise customers identify risks, value drivers, and strategic levers before issuing an RFP. It aims to bring in multiple stakeholders for complex purchasing decisions at multinationals.
👉 Procurement is a great wedge for multinational corporate transformation. Buying anything in an enterprise that uses large-scale ERPs is a nightmare of committees and spreadsheets. Turning an oil tanker-sized organization around is difficult, but the right suppliers can have a meaningful impact in the short term. That only works if you can buy from them. Getting people on the same page with a single platform is a great start.
NeoTax allows companies to connect their engineering tools to calculate available tax advantages automatically. Once calculated, the tax fillings are clearly labeled with supporting evidence for the IRS.
👉 AWS and GCP log files and data are a goldmine. Last week, I covered Bilanc, which uses log files to figure out per-account unit economics. Now, we calculate R&D tax credits. The unlock here is LLM's ability to understand unstructured data. The hard part is understanding the moat, but time will tell.
In an era where technology and finance are increasingly intertwined, these four fintech companies stand out as catalysts for positive change. By driving progress in digital payments, asset management, lending, and decentralized finance, they are not only making financial services more accessible and efficient—they are also paving the way for a more inclusive and empowered global economy. Staying informed about their innovations can help you seize new opportunities and take part in the future of finance.
PayPal issued low guidance and warned of a “transition year.” The stock is down 8% in extended trading despite PayPal reporting a 9% growth in revenue and 23% EBITDA. Gross profit is down 4% YoY. PayPal's total revenues were $29Bn for the year
Adyen reported 22% revenue growth and an EBITDA margin of 46% for the full year. Adyen's total revenues were $1.75bn for the full year. The margin was down from 55% the previous year, impacted by hiring ahead of growth.
🤔 PayPal’s Braintree (unbranded) is losing market share in the US, while Adyen is winning it. eCommerce is growing ~9 to 10% YoY, and PayPal’s transaction revenue grew by 6.7%. The higher interest rate environment meant interest on balances dragged up the total revenue figure. Their core business is losing market share. Adyen is outgrowing the market by ~12%.
🤔 The PayPal button (branded) is losing to SHOP Pay and Apple Pay. The branded experience from Apple and Shopify is delightful for users; it’s fast and helps with small details like delivery tracking. That experience translates to higher conversion (and more revenue) for merchants.
🤔 The lack of a single global platform hurts PayPal, but it helps Adyen. In the earnings call, the new CEO admitted their mix of platforms like Venmo, PayPal, and Braintree are holding them back. They aim to combine and simplify, but that’s easier said than done.
🤔 Making a single platform from PayPal, Venmo, and Braintree won’t be easy. There’s a graveyard of payment company CEOs who tried to make “one platform” from things they acquired years ago. It’s crucial if they’re going to grow that they get their innovation edge back. Adyen has one platform in every market.
🤔 PayPal’s UK and European acquiring business is a bright spot. The UK and EU delivered 20% of overall revenue, growing 11% YoY. Square and Toast don’t have market share here, while iZettle, which PayPal acquired in 2018, is a strong market player. Overall though, it’s yet another tech stack and business that’s not part of a single global platform.
The two banks provided accounts to UK front companies secretly owned by an Iranian petrochemicals company. PCC has used these entities to receive funds from Iranian entities in China, concealed with trustee agreements and nominee directors.
🤔 This is the headline every bank CEO fears. Oof. Shares of both banks have been down since the news broke, but this will no doubt involve crisis calls, committees, appearing in front of the regulator, and, finally, some sort of fine.
🤔 The "risk-based approach" has been arbitraged. A UK company with relatively low annual revenue would look "low risk" at onboarding.One business the FT covered looked like a small company at a residential address to compliance staff. They'd likely apply branch-level controls instead of the enterprise-grade controls you'd see for a large corporation.
🤔 Hiring more staff won't fix this problem; it's a mindset and technology challenge. In theory, all of the skill and technology that exists to manage risks with large corporate customers (in the transaction banking divisions) are available to the other parts of a bank. In practice, they're not. Most banks lack a single data set and the ability for compliance officers in one team to see data from another part of the org. Getting the basics right with data and tooling is incredibly hard and will involve a multi-year effort.
🤔 These things are rarely the failure of an individual or department; the issue is systemic. While two banks are named in this headline, the issue is everywhere. Banks need more data and better data to train better AI and machine learning. That all needs to happen in real-time as a compliment to the human staff. Throwing bodies at this won't solve the visibility issue teams have.
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If you're new to XRP, you may have noticed some of us discussing another network named 'Xahau'.
It's Like XRP ... But Different
The Xahau network was created in 2023, and its starting point was the open-source code for the XRP Ledger. A small team of researchers and entrepreneurs decided to add smart contracts to the network code.
The XRP Ledger has no smart contract capabilities, by default.
To integrate smart contracts, the team decided to use an architecture that includes 'WASM' or 'web assembly' code. Each account can have up to 10 'hooks' installed that are triggered for transactions that match specific criteria. They can run before or after a transaction is processed. This enables a variety of use cases that do not involve the need to change the network's core code.
Hooks
A 'hook' is what is known as a smart contract that can be triggered in relation to a specific account and its transactions.
The term arises from the programming world, where it generally means "code that runs based on triggering conditions." In Xahau's case, it indicates code that is run before, or after, a transaction is processed.
Each hook must be installed on a specific account by the party that controls the account - i.e., the secret key holder.
What Can XAH Do That XRP Cannot?
The primary benefit from the use of hooks, is that the core network code does not need to be changed every time a new use case is identified. This means that additional use cases can be addressed immediately, with no requirement for intervening steps, such as:
Community review
Community approval
Amendment voting
All of those steps are eliminated with the use of hooks; new use cases can be addressed as fast as the code can be developed.
To read more about how hooks enables Xahau to handle more use cases than even the XRPL, you can read this article:
Other unique differences from the XRP Ledger include:
Much smaller supply ~612 million coins vs. 100 billion coins
XAH hodlers are rewarded at 4% of their account balance. There are no rewards for XRP.
Governance participants are incentivized
Payment channels available for user-created tokens (IOUs)
URI tokens instead of NFT tokens
Who's Who of Xahau?
The list of those that are either founders, or closely associated with the founding organizations, is extensive. Here are the names of three organizations mentioned in the whitepaper, or their current moniker:
Xaman (a.k.a. XRPL Labs)
Gatehub
InFTF (Inclusive Financial Technology Foundation)
There exists a long list of impressive developers, architects, and technologists among the Xahau inner circle. But the three names that people associate most prominently with the leadership of the Xahau network are Wietse Wind, Richard Holland, and Denis Angell. The links to their 'X' accounts are:
While Ripple, the company with the largest stake of XRP, showed interest in hooks early on, they ultimately decided to advocate for a different approach; the use of an EVM-based solution (Ethereum Virtual Machine) to handle smart contracts on the XRP Ledger. This decision was met with consternation by the Xaman team that had worked with them for several years to advocate for the use of hooks.
You can read more about the 'business politics' part of this topic here:
So how do Xahau fans view the relationship between XRP and XAH?
The Xahau team - andmany of its community members - advocate for the use of a 'dual-chain' solution to implement smart contracts. This can be accomplished by the use of 'listener' software, along with native Xahau hooks.
A proof of concept, developed by Denis Angell, has demonstrated that bi-lateral communication can work with a simple approach.
From an economic standpoint, every chain that has its own digital asset is a competitor; but the simple way to think about Xahau, is that a 'bunch of XRP geeks' decided to implement smart contracts on their own version of the XRP Ledger.
The team emphasized transparency along the way, and initially received support from the primary XRP stakeholder, Ripple. They published Xahau as open-source code that could, in theory, be back-engineered and integrated with the XRP Ledger. You can clearly observe the team's idealistic mindset in early marketing mistakes, where they named their digital asset 'XRP Plus' in an effort to emphasize the way that they viewed their creation. While this resulted in confusion - and even suspicion - in its early days, the team quickly pivoted, and named their digital asset 'XAH', which became its ticker symbol.
Synergy effects between the two camps speak to a genuine camaraderie, with many Xahau developers being open and willing to help with changes to the core XRP Ledger protocol. You can find many examples of this open dialogue on the 'X' platform.
How To Purchase XAH
If you wish to speculate by buying XAH directly, it is available in a variety of convenient locations, depending on where you are located. If you're in a country that is supported by Bitrue, you can directly purchase or trade XAH by using that exchange.
On January 20th, 2025, Bitmart announced that it supports trading of XAH for customers in their list of supported countries; And in late March, another major exchange announced that they would be supporting XAH trading pairs: Coinex.
If you're located in the United States, you can purchase XAH directly from a vendor known as 'C14'. The xApp for C14 is located in the Xaman wallet.
XRP Ledger geeks can also purchase XAH IOUs on the XRPL Dex and then convert them to 'real' XAH using a Gatehub bridge. This is available in countries that Gatehub supports.
Which XAH Accounts Should I Follow?
On the 'X' platform, there exists two major community groups for XAH fans:
In addition to the Xahau notables I've already mentioned in this article, my advice is to take a look at who is posting in the above two communities. There are many impressive leaders and entrepreneurs included. You should be able to find multiple 'X' accounts that reflect your interests.
Xahau Development Roadmap
Xahau leaders have published a roadmap for 2025 that lists their various goals for the ecosystem:
One of the most incredible waypoints listed is 'JavaScript Hooks Implementation.' 🤯
JavaScript!
With the 'JavaScript Hooks Implementation', Xahau is making history; it will enable anybody that knows JavaScript to easily create and install a smart contract. While networks like Ethereum are impressive early movers, they require developers to learn a new language and syntax.
Xahau will soon open 'crypto smart contracts' to a group of developers that number in the tens of millions.
Project L-10K
Project L-10K is one of the most important items in the pipeline. L-10K refers to the effort to boost the throughput of Xahau consensus to over 10,000 transactions per ledger! This will benefit hosted projects such as Evernode, and future issued assets. Heading up the effort is Richard Holland, who provided a progress update to the community in late May of 2025:
To learn more about this ambitious effort, you can watch his full presentation here:
Once you've seen the extensive list of use cases that XAH easily handles, it's truly inspiring. Xahau is everything that you love about XRP, plus a long list of more things to love. ❤️
Be an early adopter of XAH and the Xahau network! Join the community groups listed and follow the accounts that seem to reflect your own interest - speculator, developer, or crypto fan. You have a place in our community, no matter what your background or interests are. Welcome to the future of crypto Defi and Payments.
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Welcome to the Dinarian on Locals, where we discuss everything blockchain and digital asset related. We are here to learn from one another as this is a new and ever evolving space. Please post and share what you like, but be respectful to others as they are here to learn as well.
Knowledge is power, using that knowledge can be extremely powerful,
The Dinarian
