Written by: ChandlerZ, Foresight News

On February 9th, Beast Industries, owned by renowned YouTube creator MrBeast, announced its acquisition of Step, a mobile banking app targeting teenagers, marking its entry into the fintech sector. This is the company's first official move following its announcement of a $200 million equity investment from Ethereum treasury company BitMine.

Step is a one-stop financial management app and a digital banking platform designed to help young people embark on their financial journey. The company offers a range of services to teenagers and young adults, including savings accounts, a credit-enhancing Visa card similar to a debit card, and cash advances. Step itself is not a bank, but provides banking services through a partnership with Evolve Bank & Trust, a member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC).

Neither company disclosed the terms of the transaction. In 2022, Step stated that it had raised $500 million in equity and debt financing from institutional investors including General Catalyst, companies such as Stripe, and individual investors such as TikTok influencer Charli D'Amelio.

Expanding beyond YouTube

MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, has grown from a single creator into the core of a business organization spanning content, consumer goods, and offline experiences. Public data shows that it has over 466 million YouTube subscribers, and its main channel and multilingual matrix have a massive cumulative reach, placing it among the top global internet platforms in terms of dissemination efficiency and user mobilization capabilities.

The influencer began planning to enter the fintech field several months ago. In October 2025, Beast Holdings, LLC filed a trademark application for "MrBeast Financial" with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The company plans to provide cryptocurrency trading services, crypto payment processing, and crypto trading through DEX.

Although a trademark application only represents a presupposition of business boundaries and cannot be directly equated with product launch, there is still a time lag between regulatory approval and business implementation. Even so, this is the first time MrBeast has formally documented its intentions in the financial and crypto sectors.

Rewind a month to January 2026, when Ethereum treasury company BitMine announced a $200 million equity investment in Beast Industries, a transaction expected to close around January 19, 2026. Beast Industries CEO Jeff Housenbold stated that they would explore further collaborations and integrate DeFi into its financial services platform. Both parties plan to explore incorporating DeFi into their upcoming financial services platform. Beast Industries is an entertainment and consumer products company founded by renowned YouTube creator MrBeast.

MrBeast has spoken extensively about his personal finances, viewing the acquisition of Step as an opportunity to "provide millions of young people with a financial foundation I've never had." As the company prepares to enter the financial industry, MrBeast stated that he wants to create financial videos, such as "educating people on how to invest and showing them what a Roth IRA is."

He was previously accused of profiting over $10 million by pumping and dumping cryptocurrencies.

However, this is not MrBeast's first foray into the crypto space. On October 11, 2024, on-chain detective SomaXBT published an on-chain investigation. The investigation claimed that MrBeast participated in the initial decentralized exchange offerings (IDOs) and token promotions of multiple projects, profiting handsomely from the resulting surge in token prices after its endorsements.

The projects involved include SuperFarm (SUPER), Polychain Monsters (PMON), SPLYT (SHOPX), etc., and the prices of some tokens dropped by more than 90% after MrBeast's sell-off.

SomaXBT exposed several cases, using the SUPER token as an example, which is a project backed by Elliot Trades.

According to SomaXBT, MrBeast invested $100,000 in the project and received 1 million SUPER tokens in return. Following his investment, the token price surged, and on March 30, 2021, MrBeast transferred his SUPER tokens to a backup wallet, where they were subsequently sold off through a series of transactions for a total of 1,900 ETH (approximately $3.7 million at the time). MrBeast received additional SUPER tokens under a vesting contract, which he then sold for $5.5 million, bringing his total earnings from the project to approximately $9 million.

SomaXBT's investigation also highlighted MrBeast's connection to Polychain Monsters (PMON), another low-market-cap token project. In this case, MrBeast invested $25,000 and received 25,000 PMON tokens. On March 31, 2021, he transferred these tokens from his wallet to another wallet and sold them through a series of transactions, making a total profit of 685 ETH (approximately $1.3 million).

The investigation also included projects such as SHOPX, STAK, and VPP in the same discussion, arguing that after MrBeast was accused of completing a sell-off, the prices of these tokens experienced a significant pullback, with some falling by more than 90% from their peak. It concluded that this was a "pump and dump" strategy, emphasizing that the combination of influencer marketing and low-liquidity tokens amplifies volatility and shifts risk to retail investors.

In addition, MrBeast purchased a total of 705,821 ASTER tokens in September 2025, which were worth approximately $1.28 million at the time.

In summary, Beast Industries has made a key move in establishing its financial gateway, while its crypto-related capabilities are still in the planning and exploration stage. Historical on-chain controversies may continue to affect the outside world's trust threshold for its financial and crypto businesses.

Bitmine has staked another 109,504 ETH, worth over $340 million.

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