Enterprise search vendor Glean’s new agentic AI search model underscores the importance of enterprises using domain- and specialized-task-specific models, but it also illuminates the challenge facing search vendors.
Waldo, released on April 28, is a reinforcement learning agentic search model that runs before a frontier model is used. Its job is to search, and once it has finished, Waldo hands off to a frontier model that retrieves and reasons. According to Glean, Waldo searches and the frontier model generate the response. The model was built on Nvidia’s Nemotron 3 Nano open model.
With Waldo, Glean is making the case to enterprises that, since many agents first have to search for information before performing the tasks that they’re being asked to do, in that sense, search underlies all agentic applications.
So, it is better to have a search-specific model that performs the search, then use a reasoning model for reasoning and retrieval. Glean’s approach is based on the popular idea that domain-specific models are often more effective than generic frontier models and Glean says it aims to help enterprises save on the cost of using large frontier models.
Related:AWS Launches Managed Agents with OpenAI Partnership
“As enterprises start to get to the second and third generation of their agents, they’re starting to get more concerned about what the actual cost, effectiveness and performance is of these things,” said Rowan Curran, an analyst at Forrester Research. “There is an increasing appeal for these more directed models for tasks within overall agentic workflows and executions.”
With Glean being at its core an enterprise search vendor, the pivot to helping enterprises achieve the most accurate, direct retrieval of information is natural in the age of agentic AI. Other search vendors, such as Moveworks and Genspark, have had to move toward agentic search as well.
“Companies that have some expertise in a given area … be that through software or through professional services or through any service are in a position to translate that knowledge into cash using a targeted model,” said Bradley Shimmin, an analyst at Futurum Group. He added that those vendors could also fine-tune or distill a model, which is what Glean did by using Nemotron 3 Nano.
An Upper Hand with a Downside
However, Glean’s specialized model stands out and could be a differentiating factor for the Palo Alto-based vendor, Curran said.
“They may have some advantage given that they run as a SaaS platform in terms of understanding the way that their enterprise users search more deeply than some of the other providers,” he said.
Related:Meta Scales AI Infrastructure With AWS Chip Deal
He added that search and retrieval will likely not be quite as simple as Glean has presented it, with a specialized model for search and another for retrieval and reasoning. For one, there are different ways to retrieve data, such as using APIs or MCP connectors. Also, frontier models have become adept at direct file access, a method in which the model can read, navigate and analyze files without much user input. Curran added that, six or eight months ago, it would have been unlikely for frontier models to look through an enterprise directory to find an answer that matched the query presented.
“Now you do have these capabilities in most of the frontier models as well as the harnesses that are being built around them,” Curran continued.
Another challenge that Glean and other search vendors face is that enterprises are making increasingly diverse demands.
“Over the past couple of years, we have gone from … ‘Can you give me Google for my enterprise’ when they were talking about high-end enterprise search, which is now transformed into ‘Can you give me ChatGPT for my enterprise?’” Curran said. The change in what enterprises are looking for, along with search being a fundamental part of agentic AI, means that vendors like Glean are reconsidering their value proposition, he added.
Related:Nvidia Nemotron 3 Nano Omni Powers Enterprise AI Agents
However, Waldo’s release is a promising sign for the entire AI industry, Shimmin said.
“The more vendors like Glean that push into these marketplaces with their own solutions, the better off the whole industry is,” he said.
Visa (V) is expanding its stablecoin push by adding support for five more blockchains as it leans into a multichain approach to global payments.
The payments giant said Wednesday its stablecoin settlement pilot now spans nine networks and has reached a $7 billion annualized run rate, up 50% from the prior quarter. The program lets issuers and acquirers settle transactions using stablecoins instead of traditional banking rails.
The newly supported blockchains are Coinbase’s Base, Polygon, Canton Network, Circle’s Arc and Stripe-backed Tempo, joining existing integrations with Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche and Stellar.
Visa’s move comes as stablecoins — cryptocurrencies with prices tied to fiat money — are gaining ground as a way to move money across borders. Visa has been testing that model through pilots and regional rollouts, including USDC settlement tied to card programs in more than 50 countries.
Instead of waiting days for funds to move through banking systems, partners can settle transactions using blockchain-based dollars that move in near real time. By supporting multiple networks, Visa is aiming to give partners access to different pools of liquidity without added complexity.
“Our partners are building in a multi-chain world, and they expect their options to reflect that reality,” said Rubail Birwadker, Visa’s global head of growth products and strategic partnerships. “Expanding our stablecoin settlement pilot program to more blockchains means our partners can choose the networks that best fit their needs, while relying on Visa to provide a common settlement layer across all of them.”
Strategy CEO Phong Le and Blockstream CEO Adam Back appeared Wednesday on a panel moderated by Natalie Brunell, covering Bitcoin treasury strategy, tokenization, digital credit, and the enduring mystery of Satoshi Nakamoto.
The conversation drew a picture of a financial system in transition, with Bitcoin at its center.
Le opened with a striking observation about Strategy’s Bitcoin holdings. The company now holds 818,334, putting it second behind only one entity.
“There is only one individual entity with more Bitcoin than Strategy,” Le said. “That’s Satoshi.”
The firm is on pace to reach 1 million BTC in the next couple of months, a milestone that would cement its place in financial history.
Digital credit in the bitcoin space
Much of the discussion centered on Stretch, or STRC, Strategy’s perpetual preferred stock that pays an 11.5% annual dividend with proceeds used to purchase Bitcoin.
Le was direct about why the product matters. “This product does good,” he said, contrasting it with industries like tobacco and processed food.
Investors use STRC as a place to park short-term money, and it has served as a lower barrier for people seeking BTC exposure. Layer 2 products and DeFi protocols are now being built on top of it, Le said, describing STRC as “the most important credit product of all time” and a cornerstone for bringing BTC and DeFi together.
Back addressed the intersection of cypherpunk ideology and institutional finance, a tension the Bitcoin community has long wrestled with.
He said BTC’s acceptance by sovereign wealth funds and private funds is “a sign of success,” not a compromise. Cypherpunks, he explained, believed in capital formation and free markets, not just cryptographic privacy.
Back said treasury companies exist to grow Bitcoin per share, and when they do, individual holders benefit too.
Le reinforced the point, saying he learned much from Back when they first met. “Cypherpunks are gifted minds who understand the markets very well,” Le said, framing the movement as one that has always operated at the intersection of technology and capital.
On tokenization, both men saw it as the next structural shift. Le described it as “the digitalization of markets,” with blockchain providing the transparency layer.
He pointed to tap-to-pay as an analogy. “Why can’t you do that to a stock, peer to peer?” he asked. Back added that tokenization enables 24/7 trading, use of assets as collateral, and unlocks value in assets that are hard to discover or trade, like private notes and contracts.
When asked if major banks would compete in bitcoin digital credit, Le said he expected them to. He compared it to Amazon reshaping retail and forcing Walmart to respond.
Then he added: “I’d love to see Morgan Stanley on that list” regarding massive bitcoin companies.
The panel closed on a lighter note. Brunell asked Back about a New York Times investigation published earlier this month that named him as Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto.
Back, who denied the claim when the story broke, did not address it directly. “We are in a very good place regarding people adopting the technology,” he said.
Gibraltar has introduced legislation that would legally recognize tokenized fund shares and allow certain regulated funds to issue shares on distributed ledger systems, granting investors the same rights as traditional shareholdings.
The Protected Cell Companies (Amendment) Bill 2026 states that “the holder of a share token is a shareholder with the same rights and obligations as any other holder of cell shares,” referring to shares linked to specific asset pools within a protected cell company.
Protected cell companies, typically insurance or financial entities, have a core organization that is linked to several independent cells, each with its own balance sheet.
The proposal, which requires approval from the Gibraltar Financial Services Commission, applies to protected cell companies operating as experienced investor funds. Ownership records must be maintained on blockchain-based share registers, with tokenized shares legally equivalent to traditional certificates.
Source: Gibraltarlaws.gov
Source: Gibraltarlaws.gov.gi
The framework sets strict rules for custody and transfers, limiting access to verified investors and allow-listed wallet addresses while requiring disclosures on technology risks, cybersecurity and recovery procedures.
Companies must retain control over the underlying infrastructure, keeping the system within a regulated environment rather than an open, permissionless market.
Under the proposal, tokenized shares can be issued and transferred using smart contracts and cryptographic signatures, with blockchain records recognized as valid instruments for ownership, transfer and recordkeeping under existing company law.
The bill must now proceed through Gibraltar’s legislative process before taking effect.
Related: ECB backs tokenized EU capital markets with strict guardrails
Tokenized assets move from pilots to regulated markets
Governments and financial institutions are integrating tokenized assets into regulated financial systems, developing legal frameworks and market infrastructure for blockchain-based securities.
Switzerland was among the earliest jurisdictions to bring tokenized assets under existing financial law, with its regulator approving a crypto fund in 2021 for qualified investors. In 2025, the country expanded that framework by licensing its first distributed ledger technologies (DLT) trading facility, enabling tokenized securities to be traded and settled on regulated infrastructure.
In 2022, Singapore launched Project Guardian to test tokenized assets in wholesale markets, while Hong Kong has issued and expanded a program of tokenized government bonds since 2023.
Source: www.hkma.gov
Source: www.hkma.gov
In 2024, the World Bank issued a Swiss franc digital bond on Switzerland’s SIX Digital Exchange with settlement using central bank digital currency.
Most recently, in March, Canada completed a pilot that issued and settled its first tokenized bond on distributed ledger infrastructure.
Magazine: Singapore isn’t a ‘crypto hub’ — it’s something better: StraitsX CEO
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Strike CEO Jack Mallers announced a series of product updates and strategic moves Wednesday, including the launch of lending proof-of-reserves, a new “volatility-proof” bitcoin-backed loan structure built with Tether, and a $2.1 billion credit facility.
He also said he supports a proposal by Tether Investments to merge Strike with Twenty-One Capital and bitcoin miner Elektron Energy.
Mallers said Strike’s bitcoin-backed loan and line-of-credit business has grown since launch, with users drawn to the ability to borrow against bitcoin rather than sell it.
He described bitcoin as a savings account for many customers and said Strike cut its rate tiers across the board. Pricing now ranges from approximately 10.5% APR for loans under $250,000 to approximately 7.49% APR for loans above $5 million.
Strike announced the first iteration of its lending proof-of-reserves, which gives borrowers the ability to verify that their collateral is present and segregated in a distinct on-chain address.
“We want you to trust us and know that we are who we say we are,” Mallers said. The disclosure mechanism was developed in partnership with Tether, which Mallers credited with helping Strike build the transparency infrastructure.
The two companies also jointly developed what Mallers called “volatility-proof” bitcoin-backed loans, a structure that removes the risk of forced liquidation when bitcoin prices fall or broader markets drop.
Mallers said the segregated collateral product is available now through Strike’s private client desk, and the volatility-proof loan feature is available to customers as part of the bitcoin-backed lending suite.
Mallers announced that Strike has secured a $2.1 billion credit facility, which he said gives the company capacity to meet demand at any order size within its lending business.
Merger proposal
Earlier Wednesday, Tether Investments published a proposal to merge Twenty-One Capital with Strike and Elektron Energy, a large-scale bitcoin mining operator that manages approximately 50 EH/s, or roughly 5% of the current Bitcoin network hashrate.
Tether said the combined entity would integrate bitcoin treasury holdings, mining, financial services, lending, and capital markets under a single listed platform.
Mallers said he backs the plan. “Simply put, I think it’s a great idea,” he said, adding that building a Bitcoin company — not a narrow payments app — was his founding goal. Elektron founder Raphael Zagury has been proposed as President of the combined entity under the plan.
The bitcoin company quadrant and Maller’s vision
Mallers used a quadrant framework onstage to argue that the Bitcoin industry has a gap at the intersection of high conviction and high operating income.
He placed crypto exchanges in the high-income, low-conviction corner, saying they run profitable businesses but list many coins and build products across asset classes. He placed bitcoin treasury companies in the high-conviction, low-income corner, describing them as deeply committed to bitcoin but limited in operating business scope.
He cited Coinbase as an exchange that could carry more bitcoin on its balance sheet, and praised MicroStrategy executive chairman Michael Saylor while drawing a distinction between a treasury strategy and a product strategy. “I love him and his company,” Mallers said of Saylor, “but I want to build bitcoin products.”
His answer to the gap was a four-pillar model: a financial services arm covering brokerage, custody, lending, payments, treasury, and prime services; bitcoin infrastructure spanning energy, power generation, mining, hardware, and hosting; a capital markets operation built around loan-book securitization, mining revenue securitization, bitcoin-backed debt, and structured products; and a mergers-and-acquisitions function targeting profitable bitcoin businesses across software, custody, payments, energy, and distribution.
The stated goal of the M&A arm, as presented on his slide, is to give “every dollar of operating income one job: buy more Bitcoin.”
Mallers closed by saying a platform of that scope could “change the world with its products” and cited a phrase he has used throughout his career: “Fix the money, fix the world.”
Stablecoin settlement pilot sees record growth 50% quarter over quarter, reaching $7B run rate.
Visa is adding support for five additional blockchains, further expanding its multi-chain settlement capabilities.
SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Today, Visa (NYSE: V) announced that it is adding five blockchains to its global stablecoin settlement pilot, expanding how issuers and acquirers can settle with the network. As stablecoins move into mainstream payment flows, Visa’s stablecoin settlement pilot now supports nine blockchains and has reached a $7 billion annualized stablecoin settlement run rate, up 50% since last quarter.
“Our partners are building in a multi-chain world, and they expect their options to reflect that reality,” said Rubail Birwadker, Global Head of Growth Products and Strategic Partnerships, Visa. “Expanding our stablecoin settlement pilot program to more blockchains means our partners can choose the networks that best fit their needs, while relying on Visa to provide a common settlement layer across all of them.”
Newly supported blockchains
Visa is adding support for five additional blockchains, further expanding its multi-chain settlement capabilities:
Arc: An open Layer-1 blockchain created by Circle, purpose-built to unite programmable money and onchain innovation with real-world economic activity.
Base: A high-performance blockchain enabling fast, low-cost settlement for stablecoins, onchain assets and agentic commerce. Powered by Coinbase.
Canton: Built with configurable privacy for regulated capital markets, enabling compliant settlement for institutional use cases.
Polygon: A leading blockchain payments solution that enables fast, low-cost transactions, delivering seamless, high-throughput infrastructure for global payments and digital commerce.
Tempo: Focused on faster, private, and more efficient movement of stablecoin liquidity and settlement flows.
With these additions, Visa now supports nine blockchains across its global stablecoin settlement pilot program, giving partners more choice while building on existing support for Avalanche, Ethereum, Solana, and Stellar.
From experimentation to multi-chain reality
Over the past year, stablecoins have evolved from a promising innovation to a practical way to move money globally, and Visa’s settlement pilots are helping partners streamline operations.
This builds on years of live pilots and regional rollouts across LAC, Europe, AP and CEMEA, as well as the recent expansion of USDC settlement to U.S. banks and 130+ stablecoin-linked card programs in more than 50 countries. The move to nine supported blockchains mirrors a broader trend: liquidity and activity now span a diverse, multi-chain ecosystem, and settlement infrastructure is evolving to match to provide more choice.
Visa is building toward a future where interoperability is essential. Supporting multiple blockchains gives partners more choice in how they access liquidity across ecosystems and adapt as the landscape changes, while Visa eases some of the underlying complexity so institutions can use stablecoins through a trusted, global network.
Continued momentum
The growth to a $7B run rate underscores increasing confidence in blockchain infrastructure from financial institutions, fintechs, and payment providers. Stablecoin settlement over blockchain infrastructure is becoming a viable complement to traditional settlement rails.
As adoption continues, Visa remains focused on bridging traditional finance and blockchain-based systems – bringing the same standards of reliability, security, and scale to both.
Partner perspectives
“Arc is designed to provide the performance, predictability, and reliable access to liquidity needed to support real-time settlement at a global scale. Our work with Visa reflects growing demand for stablecoins like USDC and blockchain infrastructure that can settle today’s payment flows instantly while enabling the next era of programmable commerce and agent-driven economic activity.” Nikhil Chandhok, Chief Product and Technology Officer, Circle.
“Our goal with Base has always been to make onchain the new standard. Visa’s expansion is a pivotal step in making stablecoin payments a daily reality for billions of people, enabling a faster, cheaper, and more useful financial system for everyone,” said Jesse Pollak, Founder of Base.
“Canton was designed to meet demanding requirements of regulated institutions, and Visa’s stablecoin settlement platform provides a bridge that lets them explore onchain settlement while staying aligned with their compliance requirements,” said Eric Saraniecki, Head of Network Strategy at Digital Asset, co-founder of the Canton Network.
“Visa adding Polygon signals that stablecoins are moving into real world payments at scale. By combining Visa’s global reach with Polygon’s fast, low-cost infrastructure, we are making stablecoin settlement more practical, reliable, and accessible for partners around the world,” said Marc Boiron, CEO, Polygon Labs.
“Tempo is focused on real-time stablecoin settlement, and Visa’s participation as both a validator and settlement partner helps bring always-on, programmable payments closer to the mainstream,” said Ani Narayan, GTM, Tempo.
Bitcoin (BTC) fell from its local high at $79,500 as traders repositioned ahead of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting on Wednesday.
Historical data shows that since the start of 2025, BTC has corrected seven out of 10 times after an interest rate cut.
Bitcoin’s reaction to interest rate cut decisions in 2025 and 2026 shows a clear pattern. The price often moved higher in the days before the meeting, followed by negative returns afterward, as illustrated in the chart.
BTC price reaction post FOMC meet. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
The seven-day returns ranged from +6.92% to –29.57% across 10 FOMC meetings.
BTC 7-day reaction after FOMC (visual heatmap table). Source: Cointelegraph
Over the past two years, the post-FOMC price action has been driven less by the rate outcome and more by shifts in liquidity and leverage conditions.
During the Jan. 29–Feb 5 drawdown, when BTC fell roughly 30%, derivatives data highlighted the extent of this dynamic. Futures open interest declined sharply, falling to $49 billion from around $61 billion over the course of a week, signaling an aggressive unwind of leveraged positions.
This deleveraging phase triggered an estimated $2.5 billion in BTC-specific liquidations, with total crypto liquidations reaching $4.5 billion over the same period.
MN Capital founder Michael van de Poppe said that the setup was typical pre-FOMC behavior from the traders. The view frames the pullback as a routine correction tied to the policy uncertainty, with van de Poppe adding,
“It almost always happens prior to the event, as there’s still a lot of fear for FED policies from the markets.”
The analyst noted that as long as the price holds above $73,000, the higher range may remain intact in the near term.
Related: Three Bitcoin charts say BTC price may rally toward $82K
Strategy buying BTC offsets the weak sentiment
While short-term price action reflects caution around macro events, the broader demand picture suggests a strong structural bid beneath the market.
Corporate BTC accumulation continues to play a key role. Strategy has significantly expanded its Bitcoin holdings in 2026, increasing its total balance to 818,334 BTC from 672,497 on Jan. 1, adding 145,837 BTC.
The purchases are partly funded through Stretch (STRC) offerings, in which the firm raises capital via equity-linked instruments and allocates the proceeds to Bitcoin.
Strategy BTC holdings in 2026. Source: bitcointreasuries.net
Bitcoin macro researcher Ecoinometrics noted that the pace mirrors the late-2024 accumulation, though current conditions are less bullish.
At the same time, spot Bitcoin ETF flows have turned positive again, with roughly $3.5 billion in net inflows over the past two months. This resurgence signals renewed institutional participation, even as the short-term sentiment remains cautious.
BTC is finding support at key price levels. Source: Cointelegraph/TradingView
Since March, the return of institutional demand for BTC has coincided with the crypto asset forming support levels at key price ranges, such as $60,000, $65,000 and $70,000.
While macro-driven events like the FOMC continue to trigger short-term volatility and risk-off behavior, this underlying demand base is helping cushion deeper drawdowns and support a more resilient long-term market structure for Bitcoin.
Related: Bitcoin price drops below $76K as onchain data sends mixed signals
This article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and is intended for informational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice or recommendations. All investments and trades carry risk; readers are encouraged to conduct independent research.
Hyperliquid has published the fee structure for its outcome tokens, the assets that underpin prediction market-style trading on the platform, in a sign that a mainnet launch is getting closer.
Prediction markets have become one of crypto’s fastest-growing areas, with trading volume surging more than 300% in 2025 to $63.5 billion, and Hyperliquid is building the infrastructure to compete with incumbents such as Kalshi and Polymarket.
The key detail in the structure is that opening a position costs nothing. Fees only apply when closing or settling a trade. The document outlines six scenarios covering minting, trading, burning and settlement.
Traders using Hyperliquid’s “aligned quote tokens” get better rates, with taker fees 20% lower and maker rebates 50% higher than standard. The full fee formula has been published for developers.
The broader significance is that HIP-4, the upgrade introducing outcome tokens, would let users trade binary contracts on real-world events alongside Hyperliquid’s existing perpetuals and spot positions in a single account as it looks to compete with platforms like Polymarket, which said earlier this week that perpetual trading is “coming soon.”
Hyperliquid’s previous upgrade, HIP-3, which opened permissionless perpetuals to developers, has grown to more than 35% of all platform trading volume since its introduction in October 2025.
Outcome tokens are currently on testnet only. No mainnet date has been confirmed.
The following is a fintech and wider digital and economic development overview of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) nation of Kuwait in 2026.
Kuwait’s fintech evolution in 2026 reflects a country balancing two identities: a resource-rich, oil-dependent economy and an increasingly digital, services-driven financial system. While the pace of change may appear measured compared to some regional peers, the foundations being laid are deliberate. This is anchored in regulatory oversight, infrastructure investment and a growing appetite for innovation.
Like the rest of most of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), Kuwait’s economy remains heavily reliant on oil. It accounts for over 90 per cent of government revenues and export earnings in Kuwait. Gross domestic product (GDP) per capita stands at around $34,000, placing Kuwait among the highest-income economies globally.
Digital economic transformation: from oil to digital ambition
Kuwait’s broader economic transformation is framed by its Vision 2035 strategy. Like the rest of the GCC with their own strategies, Vision 2035 seeks to diversify the economy, reduce dependence on oil and position the country as a regional financial and commercial hub.
Digitalisation plays a central role in this agenda. Priorities include expansion of digital infrastructure and smart government services, development of a knowledge-based economy and support for entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystems.
Internet penetration exceeds 98 per cent, and smartphone usage is nearly universal, providing a strong foundation for digital financial services.
As highlighted in my previous work, Kuwait’s fintech development is less about rapid disruption and more about structured ecosystem building, where policy, infrastructure and private sector initiatives evolve in tandem.
Financial services sector: digital transformation within a mature system
Kuwait has a long rich history of having a financial services industry in the Middle East region IMAGE SOURCE GETTY
The country’s financial hub is Kuwait City, home to the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK), Kuwait Stock Exchange and leading financial institutions. Among the largest banks is National Bank of Kuwait (NBK), a dominant regional player that has been at the forefront of digital banking initiatives.
Kuwait’s financial services sector is well-developed, characterised by strong banking institutions, high liquidity and robust regulatory frameworks. However, digital transformation has accelerated significantly the past few years.
Key trends include growth in mobile banking and digital wallets, expansion of contactless and real-time payments, and increasing integration of fintech solutions within traditional banking models
The CBK has played a central role in guiding this transformation.
First, there is KNET and digital payments expansion , which is Kuwait’s national electronic payment system. KNET continues to underpin digital transactions, with increasing adoption of online and mobile payments.
Second, there is the fintech regulatory sandbox, which the CBK expanded. It allows fintech firms to test innovative solutions in a controlled environment, supporting innovation while maintaining stability.
Third, Kuwait has begun advancing open banking frameworks, encouraging banks to adopt APIs and collaborate with fintech firms to enhance competition and customer experience.
Fourth, banks have been encouraged to invest in digital platforms, improving customer onboarding, payments and financial service delivery.
Finally, while still in early stages, the Central Bank has shown interest in a central bank digital currency (CBDC) framework as part of broader financial innovation efforts.
These initiatives in the past few years have been complemented by increased collaboration between regulators and private-sector players, reflecting a shift towards a more integrated and innovation-friendly ecosystem.
Financial inclusion and fintech
Kuwait has achieved high levels of financial inclusion, with approximately 95 per cent of adults holding a bank account, reflecting widespread access to financial services, according to the World Bank.
As a result, the focus has shifted from access to enhancing digital adoption, improving user experience, and expanding the range of financial products. Digital payments, mobile banking and online financial services are increasingly embedded in daily life, particularly among younger and urban populations.
However, opportunities remain in areas such as with small and medium enterprise (SME) financing, digital inclusion for underserved populations (notably the blue-collar migrant workers that form the backbone of the economy like the rest of the region), and expansion of digital financial literacy.
Kuwait’s fintech ecosystem is still developing, with an estimated 120 fintech companies and startups operating across payments, lending, insurtech and digital banking.
Examples of fintechs from Kuwait include: MyFatoorah (payment gateway enabling digital transactions across the region), Tap Payments (payment infrastructure for businesses), uPayments (digital payment solutions mainly for SMEs), and Kem (mobile-first financial platform targeting younger users). These firms highlight Kuwait’s positioning as a regional fintech enabler, leveraging its financial strength and connectivity to support innovation.
Conclusion: steady transformation in a high-income market
Kuwait’s fintech journey is defined by steady, policy-led progress. In 2026, despite regional challenges, digital financial services continue to enhance efficiency, expand innovation and support economic diversification. While not driven by urgency, the country’s approach reflects a long-term vision of wider economic diversification, economic and digital prosperity.
