Money has evolved into far more than the cash in your wallet or your bank account. And at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026, we're devoting an entire stage to that progression. The brand-new Smart Money Stage will be where fintech, payments, and AI collide. From October 13'15 in San Francisco's Moscone Center, you can join leaders from Circle, Robinhood, American Express, Plaid, Airwallex, and many more as they dig into the details of how money is changing. We're talking about how stablecoins and instant payments are reshaping money movement, the ways in which AI agents are being entrusted (or not) with financial decisions, and what it takes to create regulated financial infrastructure built for a global market. We're closing in on the end of our current pricing window ' your chance to save on the best Disrupt prices is ending soon ' so check out our ticket options right here. And if you still need some convincing, let's dive into the Smart Money Stage's programming: Stablecoins and instant payments are changing how money moves around the world. This session looks at how these new payment systems compare to traditional banking infrastructure, where FedNow and private networks fit in, and how regulatory and market changes could shape the future of payments. Hear where these new systems are gaining traction, and which challenges remain....

Good morning & happy Monday! Today, we're diving into payments giant Stripe, which is now in talks to buy OpenRouter for a whopping $10 billion (what this M&A is all about, why it's very strategic for Stripe, & how it differs from Ramp's LLM routing approach + bonus deep dive into the AI Monopoly Playbook, and How to Build an Agentic OS with Claude Fable 5 inside), and Revolut that's now officially worth $115 billion, thus making it the 8th most valuable bank in Europe (why it matters, where's the biggest risk & opportunity for Revolut + bonus deep dives into Revolut, Monzo, and Starling's latest financials, and Revolut's Foundation AI Model inside). So let's jump straight into the fascinating stuff '' The BIG News ' FinTech giant Stripe is currently in talks to buy OpenRouter for around $10 billion, roughly eight times the $1.3 billion valuation the AI model marketplace carried in May ' And everyone who covered the deal so far framed it as a payments company buying the routing layer for AI. OpenRouter's own pricing page says otherwise....

A day after Snap tentatively settled with the plaintiff in a social media addiction lawsuit, leaving Meta as the only remaining defendant, the case has been dropped. In a statement, Meta said the plaintiff chose to drop his case against Meta without receiving any payment. The plaintiff, a Florida teenager known by the initials 'R.K.C.,' had sued the social media companies for creating addictive platforms. It was one of thousands of similar lawsuits from teens, schools, and state attorneys general that had accused the big tech companies of knowingly creating addictive platforms. The precedent that would have been set by this lawsuit and others could have impacted how the companies build their apps, known for features that keep people engaged, like the infinite scroll and their continual buzz of notifications. The plaintiff's decision to drop the case follows Meta's loss in a New Mexico case earlier this year, which marked its first courtroom defeat over social media harms. Meta was ordered to pay $375 million in penalties after the company was found to have misled consumers about the safety of its platforms and endangered children....

I receive a flattering email. The sender is very impressed with my work. She runs an elite reading group, would like to include one of my books. I, of course, respond that she is welcome to do so. At the second or third round of the exchange she mentions a small financial contribution by the featured author to help cover the costs of the project. One such proposal could be genuine, a worthwhile project for creating online conversations about interesting books. I think this is the third I have received in the past year. Considered as a scam, it makes sense only if targeting multiple authors, since it does not seem likely to get much money from any single author. Targeting multiple authors requires multiple versions of the emails, since they contain moderately detailed references to the author's work, hardly likely to be worth the cost of hiring someone to compose them. What made me suspicious the first time was the flattery. I am a big fish in several small ponds but the message did not feel as though it was coming from any of them. It felt like the sort of thing a not very successful author would like to be told about the intellectual importance of his work. My suspicion increased when a payment by me was finally mentioned....