Neobanks and digital-asset businesses are fast becoming fintech’s biggest engines of growth, helping the sector post record profitability and drawing fresh investor interest, according to the Global Fintech Report 2026 from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) and FT Partners.
Why it matters
- Fintech revenue topped $500 billion in 2025 after 22% growth—more than four times the pace of traditional banks.
- The industry is profitable: average EBITDA margins hit about 20%, and 74% of major public fintechs reported profits in 2025.
- Crucially, the recovery has been driven by stronger operating performance rather than easy capital access.
Investor and exit activity
- Equity funding jumped to $58 billion in 2025, a 53% year-over-year increase.
- Exit markets accelerated: fintech IPOs rose 50% to 42 deals, and M&A volumes climbed from $105 billion in 2023 to $251 billion in 2025.
- Scaled fintech firms completed 659 acquisitions in 2025—outpacing the 589 deals done by banks and incumbents, marking the first time (outside 2023) fintechs led dealmaking.
Digital assets, AI, and strategic M&A
- Beyond payments and lending, digital assets are a major focus for acquirers. Companies are using M&A to rapidly add capabilities in digital assets, artificial intelligence, and compliance as competition intensifies and in-house timelines lengthen.
- AI is emerging as a productivity multiplier: fintechs that redesign workflows around AI—not just bolt on tools—have seen up to fivefold gains in developer productivity and significant improvements across engineering, underwriting, compliance, and customer support.
Neobanks evolve into multi-product platforms
- Neobanks are moving past simple payments and acquisition plays to build diversified financial platforms. Key expansion areas include wealth management, insurance, lending, investing, and cross-border payments.
- Consumer credit stands out as a major opportunity for neobanks to deepen relationships using alternative underwriting approaches.
- Regional trends:
- Europe: many leading neobanks have added investment services, trading products, and mortgages.
- Latin America: growth is concentrated on credit products and personal lending across markets.
- U.S.: conditions are tougher—high customer acquisition costs, fragmented regulation, entrenched incumbents, and a heavily banked population make nationwide disruption difficult. Foreign neobanks are more likely to succeed by targeting niche segments; domestic players are shifting toward higher-value customers.
Regulatory shift and charters
- The regulatory gap between banks and fintechs is narrowing across the U.S., UK, and EU. Licensing and charter pathways are becoming more accessible—though compliance remains demanding.
- A rising number of fintechs are seeking U.S. federal bank charters to unlock funding advantages, control product offerings, and own customer relationships directly.
Big-picture conclusion
“Fintech has not simply bounced back from the reset years, it has come out the other side as a fundamentally more mature industry,” said Inderpreet Batra, Managing Director and Senior Partner at BCG and Global Leader of its Payments & Fintech business. Leading firms are pairing profitability with product and market expansion.
For context, BCG and FT Partners estimate fintech now accounts for roughly 4% of global financial services revenue.
What this means for crypto-focused readers
- Greater M&A interest in digital assets signals more consolidation and strategic investment in custody, trading, tokenization, and compliance capabilities.
- Neobanks’ push into lending, investing, and cross-border payments opens new distribution channels for crypto-native products and tokenized assets.
- AI-driven underwriting and compliance tools could lower costs and speed institutional adoption of digital-asset services.
Bottom line: fintech is no longer just an experimental frontier—it's maturing into a profitable, acquisitive sector where neobanks, digital-asset plays, and AI-driven services will shape the next wave of growth.
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