According to Fortune, former Citadel employees Ian Krotinsky and Aashiq Dheeraj have raised $17 million for their startup, Fin. The funding round, announced Wednesday, was led by Pantera Capital with Sequoia and Samsung Next also participating. The company, formerly called TipLink, is building a stablecoin-powered app designed to send large sums of money—think hundreds of thousands or millions—instantly across borders. The app hasn’t launched yet but plans to pilot with businesses in import and export within the next month. Fin aims to generate revenue from fees that are cheaper than traditional bank wires and from earning interest on the stablecoins held in user wallets. CEO Krotinsky did not disclose the company’s valuation.
The Big Money Problem
Here’s the thing Fin is zeroing in on: moving serious money is still a pain. We’re talking about a watch dealer in Switzerland selling to a buyer in the U.S., or any business needing to move six or seven figures. Traditional wire transfers through big commercial banks like JPMorgan Chase are slow and expensive. And domestic apps like Venmo or Zelle have low limits and aren’t built for that scale. Fin’s bet is that stablecoins—cryptocurrencies pegged to assets like the US dollar—are the perfect rail for this. They settle fast and, in theory, should cut out a lot of intermediary costs. The question is whether businesses and wealthy individuals will trust a new app over their longstanding bank relationships for these critical transfers.
Timing and Competition
The launch timing is interesting, to say the least. Fin is coming out in the wake of the Clarity for Payment Stablecoins Act being signed into law, which finally provides a U.S. regulatory framework. That’s triggered a gold rush, with giants like Western Union and Mastercard already diving into their own stablecoin projects. So Fin isn’t just fighting banks; it’s racing against other well-funded players who see the same opportunity. Krotinsky argues that big banks have built their systems “the wrong way for decades” and will struggle to adapt. Maybe. But they have massive customer bases and balance sheets that a startup can only dream of. Fin’s edge has to be a radically better user experience and lower cost, and even that might not be enough if the incumbents decide to buy their way in.
The Real Hurdle
Look, the tech promise is straightforward. Strip away the crypto complexity, use a stablecoin backend, and offer a clean app for moving money. Basically, be the sleek front-end for global stablecoin rails. But the real battle isn’t technical—it’s about trust, compliance, and liquidity. Convincing someone to send $500,000 through a new app is a monumental ask. The pilot with import/export firms is a smart start; those businesses are highly motivated by speed and cost savings. But scaling from there into a consumer-facing “payments app of the future,” as Krotinsky calls it, is a whole other ballgame. He says people will be “surprised at how quickly we move.” I think people will be surprised if they can pull it off at all. The ambition is huge, and the $17 million is just the starting ante for a very expensive game.
