Cantor Fitzgerald has opened formal coverage of fintech and payments companies, arguing that the global financial infrastructure is undergoing a wholesale redesign as blockchain technology and artificial intelligence alter how funds and assets move between accounts, across balance sheets, and between jurisdictions.
According to the firm, many consumers and businesses do not yet perceive the change because fintech providers have for years placed modern user interfaces on top of older, legacy infrastructure. Beneath those contemporary front ends, Cantor says, core shifts in the underlying financial plumbing are taking place - shifts that introduce both the possibility of disruption and the potential for accelerated growth among certain firms.
Cantor emphasized that this transition is unlikely to play out as a straightforward replacement of incumbents. Instead, the firm expects differing outcomes depending on each company's business model, making selective stock-picking an important consideration for investors.
The brokerage identified four disruptive categories it considers essential for future leaders in the sector to have exposure to: stablecoins, agentic commerce, the tokenization of real-world assets, and embedded finance.
Company ratings and rationale
Visa was assigned an Overweight rating. Cantor described Visa as part of a deep duopoly together with Mastercard and said the company remains insulated from many forms of disruption. The firm highlighted Visa's role as a transaction facilitator - rather than as a transporter of funds - which it said leaves Visa largely agnostic to how money is stored or moved, including via stablecoins. Cantor also sees room for incremental growth through pricing, value-added services, and the continuing shift toward digital payments, while expressing a slight preference for Mastercard.
Mastercard also received an Overweight rating. Cantor pointed to Mastercard's ubiquity among consumers, banks, and merchants, arguing these relationships create strong network effects and reinforce the company's competitive moat. Relative to Visa, the firm expects Mastercard to achieve higher revenue growth, more margin expansion potential, and to face less legal and regulatory overhang.
PayPal was rated Neutral. Cantor noted that recent strategic changes have produced a more balanced growth engine across the company's branded checkout business, payments processing, and Venmo, which supports volume and revenue acceleration into 2026. However, the firm flagged an expectation of deceleration in transaction margin dollars and earnings growth as a result of higher investment, which could constrain near-term upside for the stock.
Coinbase received an Overweight rating. Cantor described Coinbase as a regulated bridge between decentralized finance and traditional finance, saying it is evolving beyond spot cryptocurrency trading into a broader financial platform and is well positioned to benefit from rising stablecoin adoption.
Cantor also assigned an Overweight rating to Strategy, citing the company's role as a bitcoin-focused operating entity and its ability to use capital markets structures to expand exposure to bitcoin over time.
Cantor's view frames the evolving fintech landscape as one in which technology-driven layers - notably blockchain and AI - are rewriting how value is stored and moved, but where the pace and beneficiaries of change will be determined by exposure to specific disruptive trends and each company's strategic positioning.