Opinion of: Vitaliy Shtyrkin, Chief Product Officer at B2BinPay
For years, large retailers have invested heavily in their own fintech divisions, convinced that they can develop payment solutions internally, not forgetting the smaller players and being able to innovate independently – and, for the time being, they have succeeded.
Today, however, despite boasting vast resources and a global reach, corporations realize that money no longer guarantees change.
Why? Because the scale is a double edge. Corporations are bound by bureaucracy, regulatory scrutiny and antitrust pressure that slows them down. Meanwhile, once removed the fintech “disruptors” face fewer limitations and move faster.
They are testing white-label products, localized lending and regulated blockchain-based railways billions of dollars in StableCoins per day.
Scale is not an advantage
On the surface, corporations have global reach, brand recognition and large budgets that allow them to dominate markets, so size should give them a competitive edge. However, when it comes to innovation, the same measure becomes a liability.
Every new idea within a corporation must go through many legal checks, regulatory reviews and risk assessments. Ultimately, what a fintech can test in a few weeks takes a retailer an entire year to get approved. Unfortunately, shareholders are nothing but a minor factor.
They hope to protect and grow their multibillion-dollar investments. This load makes large retailers prioritize projects with predictable quarterly profits over experiments.
As a result, resources that could fund new products are often allocated to safer, incremental upgrades. Even when innovation budgets are approved, they are often stuck in “Pilot Mode,” never becoming part of the company’s core business.
External pressure from regulators only exacerbated the problem. In 2024, the Federal Trade Commission decided to block a $ 24.6 Billion retail mergers, arguing that it would reduce competition and lead to higher prices. It’s a reminder that, for the retail giants, every major risk in the deal has been disputes with regulatory reformers.
For retailers, scale is no longer an advantage but a trap, and one that makes real change nearly impossible. On the contrary, fintechs have the freedom to experiment, and in today’s market, speed is more than size, which will eventually decide who wins.
The pro-tech mindset
Small and mid-sized providers are not subject to the same level of regulatory scrutiny or shareholder demands, so they are more nimble. They have a simpler structure and a culture that treats technology not as a support function but as the business itself.
That’s why they can launch, test, and adjust products quickly, making retailers look like true development engines. This “pro-tech” mindset is important because instead of borrowing outdated infrastructure or endlessly adapting legacy systems, fintechs build directly on modern railroads.
Related: The evolution of crypto payments and what lies ahead
In practice, this means building on cloud-native architecture, modular APIs and microservices-tools that allow them to integrate new technologies like blockchain without waiting for approval.
This gives fintechs a significantly stronger position to define the future of digital finance – a role not yet claimed by retailers. However, retailers are beginning to accept that only partnering with fintechs can break their innovation deadlock, as recent decisions by Walmart and Shein have proven.
In 2025, Walmart changed The buyer buy-it-pay-later (BNPL) because the company understood that a modern, agile fintech can deliver faster and adapt to the needs of the buyer more effectively. Also, in 2024, Shein launched A co-branded credit card with a Mexican fintech, clearly relying on local expertise is safer than trying to develop a financial product internally.
Taken together, these moves show that corporations that once tried to squeeze fintechs are now asking them to power their core products. Where does it lead?
The path ahead: cooperation or despair
BNPL and co-branded cards are just the first step. The real frontier lies in the crypto-native infrastructure, which encompasses tokenized payments, blockchain settlement rails and digital loyalty systems. The challenges, however, from multi-jurisdictional compliance to the high cost of developing in-house onchain solutions, have only increased.
This is precisely where the gap widens: retailers face serious restrictions, while fintechs are already building the rails.
For example, circle included USDC in network providers’ network, becoming a stablecoin in a mainstream payment option. At the same time, in emerging markets, startups are releasing APIs for cards are linked to StableCoin, giving businesses instant access to crypto payments without requiring them to build anything from scratch. This is the point where the retailer’s risk falls again.
Yes, they can go it alone, but that just means repeating the same cycle of bureaucracy and delay that has slowed them down. That is why cooperation with Fintechs is the only way forward. Fintechs bring the rails, retailers reach, and together, they can deliver products that scale to millions.
Corporations must realize that in today’s market, scale without innovation is a dead end. Blockchain’s rails are upon us, and those retailers who seize on this fact will shape the future while the rest fade into the background.
Opinion of: Vitaliy Shtyrkin, Chief Product Officer at B2BinPay.
This article is for general informational purposes and is not intended to be and should not be construed as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed herein are those of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
