Circle Sinks 11% as Stablecoin Refund Debate Rattles Markets

The fall season has begun with turbulence for publicly listed FinTechs. The FinTech IPO Index declined 3.5% this past week, erasing some of its recent gains.

PYMNTS reported that Circle is reportedly exploring ways to reverse transactions involving its stablecoins. In an interview with the Financial Times, Circle President Heath Tarbert said a mechanism allowing refunds in cases of fraud or disputes would help the stablecoin industry become more mainstream.

“We are thinking through … whether or not there’s the possibility of reversibility of transactions, right, but at the same time, we want settlement finality,” he said. “So there’s an inherent tension there between being able to transfer something immediately, but having it be irrevocable.” Circle’s shares sank 11.2%.

DeFi Development shares lost 15.7% announced that its Board of Directors has approved an increase to the company’s existing stock repurchase program. The authorization has been expanded from $1 million to up to $100 million of the company’s common stock.

Flywire said this week that it has been selected by Quasar Expeditions, a tour operator for luxury and adventure ocean travel, to operate as the firm’s exclusive payments partner. The companies said that the payments processes would be integrated into Quasar’s booking system for efficient payment processing and reconciliation.

The integration will be with PEAK 15, the multiday tour operator software that Quasar uses. Ocean-based travel experiences, such as yacht charters, live-aboards and expedition cruises, according to the announcement, are among Flywire’s fastest growing subsegments. Flywire’s stock gave up 1.9%

Shopify has asked a U.S. federal judge to throw out a lawsuit filed by buy now, pay later provider Sezzle, which alleges that the eCommerce software giant’s in-house installment payment service unlawfully stifles competition. The request for dismissal was filed last week in the U.S. District Court in Minnesota.

Sezzle shares lost 5.9%  According to a statement from Shopify’s attorneys, the lawsuit is built on “nothing but Sezzle’s dissatisfaction with its own lost business” rather than a legitimate antitrust violation. The company argued that it has no obligation to design products in ways that benefit competitors, even if that limits compatibility with or affects the quality of rival services.

nCino announced that it had launched nCino Integration Gateway, a purpose-built Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS). Formerly known as Glyue by Sandbox Banking, Integration Gateway, according to the announcement, delivers integration capabilities directly to financial institutions and enables FinTech partners to power their own integration services, expanding nCino’s addressable market by offering connectivity solutions within third-party ecosystems. The platform’s enterprise-grade governance includes built-in audit trails, user access controls, role-based permissions, and SAML support, according to the announcement. nCino’s stock declined 7.8%.

In the buy now, pay later realm, Klarna announced that more than 1 million Americans have signed up for the Klarna Card in the 11 weeks since its July 4 launch in the United States. Klarna unveiled the Klarna Card in June, saying the card spends like debit but can flip into pay later mode, extending the buy now, pay later model from the checkout screen to the in-store experience. The stock lost 7.5% through the past five trading sessions.

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