Fintech Takes Not Fintech Investment Advice: Rhythmic, AgentCard, Rowspace, & Burst
Mar 18, 2026
Simon Taylor, fintech and crypto expert and author of FinTech Brain Food, joins to unpack payments, stablecoins, AI agents, and fintech plumbing. He explores stablecoin-powered branded wallets and why they matter for merchant balances. He dives into virtual prepaid cards designed for AI agents. He discusses AI that embeds institutional risk know-how. He closes with an API for HSA/FSA reimbursements.
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Stablecoin Wallets Let Brands Capture Yield
- Rhythmic enables brand stored-value wallets using stablecoins to capture yield and simplify plumbing compared with traditional prepaid/MTL models.
- Founders from AmEx, Circle, Mastercard target mid-size merchants with co-branded cards and potential float yield per OCC guidance.
Stablecoins Make Brand Money More Flexible
- Stablecoins can turn merchant stored balances into an economic lever and enable more extensible brand ecosystems beyond single POS systems.
- Interoperability depends on issuer model, compatible wallets, and accounting/regulatory clarity still evolving.
Use Cards To Bridge Stablecoin Wallets To Merchants
- Expect card issuance as a practical interoperability layer for stablecoin wallets to let users spend across POS systems.
- Visa and Mastercard work on instant settlement and merchant-optimized settlement using stablecoins under the hood.