Author: ChandlerZ, Foresight News
On February 9, Beast Industries, the company of well-known YouTube creator MrBeast, announced that it has acquired Step, a mobile banking app for teenagers, thus entering the financial technology sector. This is the company's first official move after announcing a $200 million equity investment from Ethereum treasury company BitMine.
Step is an all-in-one financial management app and a digital banking platform designed to help young people start their financial journey. The company has long offered a range of services to teenagers and young adults, including savings accounts, a Visa card that functions like a debit card to build credit, and cash advances. Step itself is not a bank, but provides banking services through a partnership with Evolve Bank & Trust, a Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) member.
Neither company disclosed the terms of the deal. 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 like TikTok influencer Charli D'Amelio.
Expand from YouTube
MrBeast, real name Jimmy Donaldson, has grown from a single creator into the core of a business organization spanning content, consumer products, and offline experiences. Public information shows that he has over 466 million YouTube subscribers, with his main channel and multilingual matrix collectively covering a massive scale, placing his reach and user mobilization capabilities at the top tier among global internet platforms.
This internet celebrity began planning to enter the financial technology sector several months ago. In October 2025, Beast Holdings, LLC submitted a trademark application for "MrBeast Financial" to the United States Patent and Trademark Office. The company plans to offer cryptocurrency trading services, cryptocurrency payment processing, cryptocurrency trading via DEX, and more.
Although the trademark application itself only represents a preset business boundary and cannot be directly equated with product launch, there is still a time lag between regulatory approval and business implementation. Nevertheless, it is the first time that MrBeast's intentions in the financial and cryptocurrency directions have been written into official documents.
Rewinding one month in time, January 2026, the Ethereum treasury company BitMine announced a $200 million equity investment in Beast Industries. This transaction is expected to be completed around January 19, 2026. Beast Industries CEO Jeff Housenbold stated that further cooperation will be explored in the future and DeFi will be introduced into its financial services platform. Both parties plan to explore introducing DeFi into the upcoming financial services platform in the future. Beast Industries is an entertainment and consumer goods company founded by the well-known YouTube creator MrBeast.
MrBeast has spoken about his personal financial situation many times, viewing the acquisition of Step as an "opportunity to provide a financial foundation that I never had for millions of young people." As the company prepares to enter the financial industry, MrBeast said he wants to make videos about finance, such as "educating people on how to invest and showing them what a Roth IRA is."
Previously accused of profiting over $10 million by dumping cryptocurrency through a pump-and-dump scheme
But this is not MrBeast's first foray into the crypto space. On October 11, 2024, blockchain detective SomaXBT published a chain-on-chain investigation. The investigation claimed that MrBeast participated in the initial decentralized exchange offerings (IDOs) and token promotion campaigns of multiple projects, and after endorsements, the token prices surged, from which he profited greatly.
The involved projects include SuperFarm (SUPER), Polychain Monsters (PMON), SPLYT (SHOPX), and some tokens dropped in price by more than 90% after MrBeast's sale.
SomaXBT has exposed multiple cases, for example, the SUPER token, a project supported by Elliot Trades.
According to SomaXBT, MrBeast invested $100,000 in the project and received 1 million SUPER tokens in return. After his investment, the token price surged, and on March 30, 2021, MrBeast transferred his SUPER tokens to a backup wallet, where the tokens were sold through a series of transactions, totaling 1,900 ETH (approximately $3.7 million at the time). MrBeast received additional SUPER tokens under a vesting contract and then sold them for $5.5 million, bringing his total earnings from the project to about $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, his wallet transferred these tokens to another wallet and sold them through a series of transactions in that wallet, making a total profit of 685 ETH (approximately $1.3 million).
The investigation also discussed projects such as SHOPX, STAK, and VPP under the same pattern, noting that after MrBeast was accused of completing a sale, the prices of these tokens experienced significant pullbacks, with some falling more than 90% from their peaks. It considers this to be "pump and dump," emphasizing that the combination of influencer promotion and low liquidity tokens amplifies volatility and shifts the risk onto retail investors.
In addition, MrBeast also accumulated a total purchase of 705,821 ASTER in September 2025, valued at approximately $1.28 million at the time.
Overall, Beast Industries has completed key moves in its financial entrance, and crypto-related capabilities are still in the planning and exploration phase. Historical on-chain disputes may continue to affect the trust threshold of the outside world towards its financial and crypto businesses.