Fintech Podcasters Call 2025 the Year Banking Regulation Finally Moved—and Predict Stablecoin Reckoning for 2026

Two prominent fintech analysts spent 98 minutes last week dissecting what they're calling a watershed year for financial technology regulation, with particular focus on what one described as the "explosive growth" in stablecoin interest and mounting concerns that digital finance products are converging with gambling mechanics.

Jason Mikula of Fintech Business Weekly and Alex Johnson of Fintech Takes recorded their year-end podcast episode in early January, highlighting five major themes from 2025 that they believe will shape corporate finance technology decisions through 2026. The discussion, published January 7th, comes as CFOs navigate an increasingly complex landscape where regulatory clarity in some areas has emerged while new risks materialize in others.

The pair identified shifts in U.S. banking regulatory posture as perhaps the most significant development of 2025, though the podcast format—a monthly recap series the two analysts have maintained throughout the year—did not include specific policy changes or agency actions in the published description. For finance leaders who spent years operating in what many described as regulatory limbo, any movement represents a notable change in the operating environment.

More immediately concerning for corporate treasurers, according to the analysts, is what they termed the "explosive growth of interest in stablecoins." The discussion suggests 2025 saw a marked acceleration in corporate and institutional attention to dollar-pegged digital currencies, though the podcast description stops short of quantifying that growth. Mikula and Johnson indicated their 2026 predictions include expectations around stablecoin market structure—a topic of particular relevance as finance departments evaluate whether to hold or transact in these instruments.

The analysts also flagged what they called "open banking's setbacks" as a key 2025 storyline. The characterization suggests the data-sharing infrastructure that many fintech applications depend on encountered obstacles during the year, potentially affecting corporate finance teams' ability to integrate banking data across platforms. The nature and scope of these setbacks were not detailed in the episode description.

Perhaps most provocatively, Mikula and Johnson devoted discussion time to "why everything seems to be gambling now"—a framing that suggests concern about the gamification of financial products. For CFOs evaluating fintech vendor relationships or employee financial wellness programs, the question of where legitimate financial innovation ends and gambling-adjacent mechanics begin has become increasingly salient.

The podcast also covered fintech IPO activity in 2025, indicating some level of public market access returned for the sector after years of drought. The analysts made what they described as predictions for 2026, though the specific forecasts were reserved for podcast listeners rather than summarized in the episode description.

The discussion format—a monthly series the pair has maintained throughout 2025—positions them as regular chroniclers of an industry that sits at the intersection of technology, banking, and regulation. Their willingness to declare 2025 a pivotal year suggests the regulatory and market dynamics that emerged will have lasting implications for how corporate finance functions evaluate and adopt fintech solutions.

For finance leaders, the key takeaway appears to be that 2025 marked an end to a period of regulatory stasis, even as new questions around stablecoins, open banking infrastructure, and product design ethics have emerged. The analysts' focus on these themes suggests they view them as the fault lines along which fintech's next phase will be determined—and along which corporate finance technology strategies will need to adapt.