May’s public fintech theme: Operating systems over products - Tearsheet
Weekly 10-QThe weekly 10-Q newsletter is part of theTearsheet Pro subscription, where I unpack the recent moves and strategies of leading banks and fintechs in the public space, coupled with stock market. . .
Weekly 10-QThe weekly 10-Q newsletter is part of theTearsheet Pro subscription, where I unpack the recent moves and strategies of leading banks and fintechs in the public space, coupled with stock market analysis. In your inbox every Friday!Message SaraMay’s public fintech theme: Operating systems over productsFirms are pushing closer to the decision layer where financial actions are executed. May showed that companies are tightening control over the infrastructure that runs financial systems, including coordination, decisioning, workflows, and the underlying data layers. Across Coinbase, LendingClub, Green Dot, Citi, and Intuit, the details differ. The direction doesn’t. Each firm is moving one layer down the stack, closer to where financial decisions are actually made and executed. 1. Coinbase: Still trading-led, increasingly infrastructure-shapedCoinbase isbuilding towardan “everything exchange,” but its business is still defined in real time by trading. Q4 2025 (reported February 2026) made that clear: revenue of $1. 78B, down 22% year over year, and a $666M net loss tied to weaker trading activity. Yet subscription and services revenue held up at $727M, driven by custody, stablecoins, and institutional products. Two engines are now visible:Trading: volatility, upside/downside driverSubscriptions and infrastructure: baseline, recurring layerCEO Brian Armstrong called Coinbase in “pole position” for 2026. Structurally, it is still a volatility-priced company building a stability engine underneath it. 2. LendingClub: The business changed first, the name followed…