Today on Forbes, why an unsustainable bubble is growing inside FinTech.

The financial technology industry has become a world of haves and have-nots.

Take San Francisco Payments Company Stripe, which helps millions of merchants accept credit cards,

process stable coin transactions, and manage billing tasks.

In 2025, it bought in $6.9 billion of net revenue and $1.2 billion of earnings before factoring in interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization expenses.

Revenues were up more than 30% from 2024.

That's world-class scale and growth, but its recent valuation of $159 billion means its private backers think it's worth nearly five times ADYEN, a publicly traded

Dutch fintech and close competitor.

Adien processed $1.9 trillion in payments last year compared with

Stripe's $1.9 trillion. Stripe loyalists point out it has more business lines and is growing

faster off a larger base, but the chances it could maintain a $159 billion valuation if it went

public today are slim.

New York-based corporate card company Ramp is another so-called, quote, have, that carries

a head-scratching price tag.

In September 2025, it announced $1 billion in annualized gross revenue and two months later fetched a $32 billion valuation.

But its gross sales figure doesn't subtract out interchange fees and rewards given back to banks,

partners, and customers.

That means its net revenue is likely at least 40% lower, putting its valuation multiple around 50 or higher,

which is reminiscent of FinTech's 2021 bubble days.

Ramp says it's growing by more than 100% annually and is cash flow positive.

Ramp's rival Brex had 30% less revenue as of September 2025, and in January 26, was valued at $5.15 billion

when Capital One announced it would acquire it.

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