Jimmy Donaldson, more commonly known as Mr. Beast, is playing a much larger game than YouTube. His company, Beast Industries, has just acquired the teen-focused digital banking app Step, officially entering the fintech sector. This move comes after he secured a $200 million equity investment from the Ethereum treasury company BitMine.
Step is not a bank; it provides young people with savings accounts, Visa cards, and cash advance services by partnering with Evolve Bank & Trust, a member of the FDIC. This company raised $500 million in 2022, with a list of investors that includes well-known venture capitalists and TikTok influencers. The terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed, but the intention is clear: Mr. Beast aims to become a financial mentor for millions of young people.
He himself stated that this is an opportunity to provide young people with a financial foundation he never had. As the company ventures into the financial industry, he expressed a desire to create educational videos about investments and personal retirement accounts. It sounds like an inspirational story.
But the data records another side. In October 2025, Beast Holdings, LLC submitted a trademark application for 'MrBeast Financial' to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, planning to cover cryptocurrency trading, payment processing, and even trading via DEX. Although a trademark does not equal a product, it officially wrote the intent of crypto into formal documents for the first time.
Earlier, in January 2026, BitMine announced a $200 million equity investment in Beast Industries. The company's CEO Jeff Hausenbold stated at the time that they would explore collaborations and introduce DeFi into their financial services platform.
However, history is not clear. On-chain detective SomaXBT released an investigation in October 2024, accusing Mr. Beast of participating in multiple projects' IDOs and promotions, and profiting by selling tokens after their prices soared due to him. Involved projects include $SUPER, $PMON, $SHOPX, among others.
Taking $SUPER as an example, the investigation claims he invested $100,000 to receive 1 million tokens. After the token price rose, these assets were transferred and sold, totaling about 1,900 $ETH, valued at around $3.7 million at the time. According to a belonging contract, he subsequently sold additional tokens, with total revenue of about $9 million.
$PMON's case model is similar: an investment of $25,000 earned 25,000 tokens, which were eventually sold through a series of transactions, yielding a profit of about 685 $ETH, valued at approximately $1.3 million at the time. Investigations indicated that after he was accused of completing the sell-off, the price of these tokens dropped more than 90% from their peak. This model is referred to as a typical 'pump and dump', transferring volatility risk to retail investors.
In addition, records indicate that he accumulated 705,821 $ASTER in September 2025, valued at approximately $1.28 million at the time.
So, when an influencer with over 466 million subscribers and top mobilization ability tells a story of financial education while pre-setting a crypto business in their trademark and has a controversial on-chain profit history, how should we view their acquisition of a youth financial entry?
Beast Industries' financial entry has been laid out, while its crypto capabilities are still in planning. But history is like on-chain data, immutable. It may continue to raise the bar for market trust in its financial and crypto business. When the guise of education intertwines with the core of business, and when huge traffic starts directing towards fragile financial products, every participant, especially the young ones, needs a caution far beyond video tutorials.
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