It is surprising, because fintech seems so hot. Whether it is blockchain or mobile banking, everybody wants a piece of fintech. Startups in the sector raised nearly $9 billion in the third quarter, a record amount, according to data from market-data research firm CB Insights. Few of those companies have hit the public markets, though, and the ones that are there have gotten a mixed reception. “When they move into the public markets, there’s more differentiation between what’s a tech firm and...

A group of financial firms led by UBS Group AG plans to start using a bitcoin-like token to settle cross-border trades, one of the biggest developments yet in the effort to make use of nascent blockchain technology. The 14 firms—a group that includes big banks in the U.S., Europe and Japan—have created a new company to control development of the token, called the utility settlement coin, or USC. They have collectively invested £50 million ($63.2 million) in the company, Fnality...

Last year, Didi Taihuttu sold almost everything he owned, poured it into bitcoin and moved his family into a trailer park. In this episode of Moving Upstream, WSJ’s Thomas Di Fonzo goes on a year-long journey with the “Bitcoin Family” as they bet everything on a decentralized cryptocurrency future. The brutal bitcoin selloff continues. But cryptocurrency supporters are plugging away with plans to use its underlying blockchain technology to reshape Wall Street’s machinery. These...

Lightyear Corp., a for-profit spinoff of the Stellar Foundation, will acquire Chain, combining the two companies into a new company called Interstellar, according to the Stellar Foundation. Chain Chief Executive Adam Ludwin will lead the new company, while Stellar co-founder Jed McCaleb will be the company’s chief technology officer. Terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but Mr. Ludwin said Friday investors would be cashed out at a multiple of their initial investment. Chain was valued at...

Software company Block.one raised $4 billion for its EOS project from investors on the promise that the blockchain platform could change the way the internet works. But infighting among the software’s fragmented developers shows it still has a way to go before the platform lives up to the hype. More than 200 volunteer developers working to launch EOS spent a fraught three hours on a conference call Friday arguing about issues related to the platform’s launch. A transcript of the call was...