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NOVEMBER 25, 2025 |
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Help yourself: What percentage of do-it-yourself (DIY) wealth management apps (where users manage their money themselves) offer AI-powered virtual assistants? |
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A) 30% B) 40% C) 50% D) 60% |
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CREDIT SCORES |
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Block will pilot a real-time credit scoring model called Cash App Score, per a press release. |
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Users’ Cash App Scores are based on financial behaviors within the Cash App ecosystem: deposit frequency, spending habits, savings activity, repayment history, and other metrics. |
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Possible rewards? Higher scores can open up bigger lines of credit through Cash App Borrow. |
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Block is positioning itself as the antithesis of traditional credit providers, rejecting traditional markers like FICO scoring as misrepresentative of underbanked and underprivileged users’ real creditworthiness. |
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MORTGAGES |
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Wealthfront, a roboadvisory wealth tech, announced Wealthfront Home Lending, a mortgage platform for purchase loans and refinancing. It will offer fixed- and adjustable-rate conventional and jumbo loans up to $5 million. |
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Applications are launching this fall in Colorado, California, and Texas, and the company will expand access in early 2026. Wealthfront previously focused on its core automated investing platform and complementary deposit products. |
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CRYPTOCURRENCY |
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LevelField Financial, a crypto-friendly “bank” without a bank charter, has obtained conditional state approval to acquire Burling Bank, a state-chartered Chicago community bank with $206 million in assets. The merger, if approved by the Federal Reserve, will hand LevelField a banking charter, allowing it to offer credit cards and loans collateralized by Bitcoin, cards with Bitcoin rewards, and digital asset custody and trading. |
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The scope of the combined entity would be similar to Erebor, a digitally and crypto-native bank that serves companies in sectors like crypto, AI, and defense and manufacturing—as well as the high-net-worth individuals tied to them. |
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REPORT |
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Proximity mobile payments are becoming an ingrained habit among US consumers. With transaction value growth outstripping user gains, leading wallets must now focus on maximizing usage. |
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This deck covers: |
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(EMARKETER subscription required to read the full report) |
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CHART OF THE WEEK |
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Key stat: US credit card debt reached $1.233 trillion in Q3 2025, with a delinquency rate of 8.9%, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. | | | |
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