Author: Christian Amanpour

Jared Isaacman, CEO of Shift4 Payments, at the New York Stock Exchange on June 3, 2021.Source: NYSEFintech stocks were in focus Tuesday as fresh earnings reports and analyst notes drove sharp reactions across the sector.Shift4 Payments and Upstart Holdings surged following upbeat news, while PayPal shares were slightly higher despite delivering a strong earnings beat.Shift4 shares rose more than 10% after the company reported better-than-expected first-quarter results and raised its full-year guidance.Shift4 reported adjusted earnings of $1.07 per share, above the LSEG expectation of 71 cents per share. Sales in the first quarter of $848 million were below the consensus…

Romain Costaseca | Afp | Getty ImagesLONDON — Britain on Tuesday published draft legislation for the cryptocurrency industry, touting greater collaboration with the U.S. as it looks to regulate the wild world of digital assets.Speaking at a fintech event Tuesday, U.K. Finance Minister Rachel Reeves announced plans for a “comprehensive regulatory regime for crypto assets,” adding that the proposals would aim to make the country a “world leader in digital assets.”The rules will bring crypto exchanges, dealers and agents into the regulatory fold, “cracking down on bad actors while supporting legitimate innovation,” the U.K.’s Treasury department said in a statement…

Justin Sullivan | Getty ImagesVenmo, long a centerpiece of PayPal’s growth story but often criticized for its lack of monetization, is becoming a bigger contributor to the business.PayPal said Tuesday in its first-quarter earnings release that revenue at Venmo increased 20% year-over-year in the first quarter, though the company didn’t provide a dollar figure. PayPal acquired Venmo in 2013 through the acquisition of parent company Braintree. While it’s long been a popular consumer service for sending money to friends, Venmo’s ability to drive meaningful revenue has been a major question mark for investors, especially as competition from rivals like Zelle…

CEO of PayPal Alex Chriss speaks during the Semafor 2025 World Economy Summit at Conrad Washington on April 24, 2025 in Washington, DC. Alex Wong | Getty ImagesPayPal reported better-than-expected earnings for the first quarter, but the company missed on revenue and reaffirmed its guidance for 2025 due to macro uncertainty. The stock fell more than 3% in pre-market trading.Here’s how the company did compared with Wall Street estimates, based on a survey of analysts by LSEG:Earnings per share: $1.33, adjusted vs. $1.16 expectedRevenue: $7.79 billion vs. $7.85 billion expectedWhile sales increased just 1% from $7.7 billion a year earlier, PayPal said the…

Anthony Noto, CEO of SoFi.Adam Jeffery | CNBCSoFi CEO Anthony Noto said the fintech bank will bring back cryptocurrency investing this year after a “fundamental shift” in the regulatory landscape under the Trump administration.SoFi was forced to drop crypto investing in late 2023 as a condition of receiving a bank charter in a time of heightened federal scrutiny of digital assets. Customers, who had access to more than 20 crypto coins at the time, were either shunted to Blockchain.com or liquidated their holdings.But after new guidance from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the technology company is planning an aggressive…

FILE PHOTO: A smartphone with the PayPal logo is placed on a laptop in this illustration taken on July 14, 2021. Dado Ruvic | ReutersPayPal, Block and Affirm are all closely tied to the health of the consumer, which has investors on edge headed into their earnings reports.Markets broadly have been jittery to start the year due largely to concerns about President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs and the prospect of higher import costs leading to rising unemployment and reduced consumer spending.Specific to e-commerce, there’s the end of de minimis trade exemptions for Chinese imports, effective May 2. That change, aimed at…

WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump and his allies have raked in nearly $900,000 in trading fees over the past two days from the president’s $TRUMP cryptocurrency token, according to Chainalysis, a blockchain data company. The surge came after a Wednesday announcement in which the top 220 holders of the token were promised dinner with the president.”Have Dinner in Washington, D.C. With President Trump,” reads a message on the front page of the Trump coin’s website. The event, which is black tie optional and hosted at the president’s private club in the Washington area, is scheduled for May 22, with a reception…

A cartoon image of US President-elect Donald Trump holding a Bitcoin token to mark the cryptocurrency reaching over $100,000 displayed at a Coinhero store in Hong Kong, China, on in Hong Kong, China, on Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024. Justin Chin | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesWASHINGTON — President Donald Trump will have to wait another three months before he can start selling his meme coin.The $TRUMP token, which debuted in January just ahead of the president’s inauguration, was scheduled to begin unlocking a major tranche of insider-held tokens this month. But Trump token’s official X account said this week that all major…

Jonathan Raa | Nurphoto | Getty ImagesWASHINGTON — Senators Adam Schiff and Elizabeth Warren are warning that President Donald Trump’s private dinner with holders of his meme coin may constitute “pay to play” corruption, and are calling for an ethics investigation.The Democratic senators, from California and Massachusetts, respectively, sent a letter on Friday to the U.S. Office of Government Ethics, asking for a probe to determine if President Trump violated federal ethics rules by offering exclusive access to top investors in his $TRUMP coin.The letter pertains to a promotion, announced on the meme coin’s website on Wednesday, offering the top…

Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Paul Atkins looks on during his swearing-in ceremony, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 22, 2025. Kevin Lamarque | ReutersWASHINGTON — SEC Chair Paul Atkins said on Friday that innovation in the crypto industry “has been stifled for the last several years,” and that changes are sorely needed.”The market itself seems to indicate that the current framework badly needs attention,” Atkins said at a roundtable held by the SEC’s recently launched Crypto Task Force.The half-day session at the SEC’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., is a notable event for Atkins,…