PayPal cuts jobs amid surge in transactions

PayPal reported in its Q3’26 earnings that buy-now-pay-later transactions surged by 25%, while its Venmo debit card saw monthly active users climb to 6.7 million—an increase exceeding 85%. Simultaneously, the company announced plans to eliminate over 2,000 positions and streamline three management layers, aiming for $1.5 billion in yearly cost reductions.

The company aims to revive branded checkout and prepare for AI-driven commerce. PayPal’s strategy is to get more value from existing customers, rather than chasing account growth, which was only 0.6%.

Market Response

PayPal’s stronger BNPL and Venmo numbers indicate where this strategy is working. However, checkout remains a challenging problem, as the company needs merchants to invest alongside it and prove that its product portfolio can translate into more payment activity and better economics.

Block’s new Dessa voice model can listen and respond simultaneously, but the company has yet to publish accuracy, latency, or benchmark data to show its performance. Square’s $1,999 AI kiosk puts voice ordering into a real merchant workflow, but payment authentication still happens through cards, PINs, and existing Square accounts.

Robinhood’s Expansion

Robinhood Banking has pulled in nearly $5 billion in deposits from over 350,000 funded customers, becoming the largest destination for money withdrawn from customers’ brokerage accounts. The firm is pushing further into agentic trading, with roughly 200,000 Agentic Trading Accounts holding over $250 million and generating over $1.6 billion in trading volume.

Robinhood is trying to keep the entire financial relationship inside its ecosystem, from trading and deposits to payments and eventually everyday spending. Its crypto revenue fell 55%, so options, event contracts, and Gold subscriptions are becoming more important.

PNC Financial’s Move

PNC is embedding ADP payroll and HR tools directly into its digital banking platform, giving small businesses access to payroll, time tracking, insurance, and retirement services alongside banking and payments. This move puts PNC deeper into the day-to-day operating stack of small businesses.

Payroll is one of the stickiest financial workflows a business has, as it sits close to cash flow, employees, and payments. Bringing it into the banking relationship gives PNC another reason for a business owner to stay inside its platform and another source of insight into how that business operates.

Coinbase’s Diversification

Subscription and services revenue reached 49% of Coinbase‘s net revenue, up from 41% a year earlier, while transaction revenue remained roughly flat. Prediction markets, derivatives, stablecoins, payments, and Base are becoming meaningful parts of the business as Coinbase tries to reduce its exposure to crypto trading cycles.

Coinbase is gradually becoming less dependent on crypto trading. The total crypto market trading volume fell 10% in the quarter, yet Coinbase kept revenue roughly flat. It remains to be seen whether these newer businesses can become dependable revenue streams in their own right.