Hans Buetow: Friends, hello, and welcome to Never Post, a podcast
for and about the Internet. I am your senior producer Hans
Beutow, and we have an investment worthy show for you
this week. Our host, you are probably noticing, Mike
Ragnetta, he is away again this week, but the mice are
definitely out to play because this episode this episode is all
about squirreling things away. And yes. Okay.
I realize now that I've said it out loud that those are two
different animals, squirrels, mice. Yes. But you have to
realize that right now in the background, in the corner of my
screen, as I read this, our EP Jason is sending me all caps
angry Slack messages about how I need to do a really good job
with this intro and how I better really sell this one as one of
our best ever episodes. And so I'm just I'm I'm really on edge
right now, and I'm distracted. And so two different mammals
that get mixed up and metaphors have now gotten away from me,
and the train has sailed now, and I'm just talking.
Jason says that I need to say this is an incredible episode.
Okay. Yes. It is. But I legally can't tell you it's the best
ever episode anyone has ever made because there are, and I'm
gonna read this from this Slack I just got, quote, ethics and
shit that we need to make people believe we are paying attention
to.
I don't know how to make Jason happy, but I I do know that I
could use some help, and this episode can maybe be that help.
So my 18 year old nephew just started his first job. He's
working in a minor league baseball stadium. That's super
cool, and we're really really proud of him for this. But you
know how first jobs are at that age.
You get that sweet sweet first paycheck, and suddenly in your
hot little hands, you're holding more money than you've ever had,
and you're like, woah. But your parents are like, you gotta
start saving. And so you're like, yeah, okay. I gotta start
saving. You know that, but you don't know how.
And so you start to look around at who you know because you
don't know anything about finance. And you look in your
world and you're like who's good with money? And you see that the
biggest YouTuber in the world, mister beast, is starting to
offer a new financial platform, a fintech. He's starting this
new business where you can invest or you can save money or
whatever it is you can put your money, and mister beast's whole
thing is about having literal stacks of money and, like,
giving them away in increasingly bombastic and clickbaity ways.
So, yeah, maybe mister beast financial makes sense for me.
So I don't think my nephew is mister beastie. I don't think
that's his scene. But I am over here as an adult in his life,
seeing him in this moment of looking at finances for the
first time. And then in parallel, mister Beast launching
this fintech, and it was the perfect time for us to get a
pitch from business and finance journalist Kit Pulliam, who was
willing to take the time to look into Mr. Beast Financial.
Kit is a reporter who really helped me with this piece
understand how if my nephew were to come to me with a grand plan
of opening an account, how to think about and talk with him
about what actually is a fintech and what is a fintech if it's
owned by Beast Industries and what can people, especially
kids, expect when they look to give Jimmy Donaldson all their
money. So after a short break, Kit Pulliam on MrBeast Financial
and what they think that might look like when it launches.
Kit Pulliam: Okay. Get ready because I'm about to jump scare
you with mister beast.
Mr. Beast: I wanted to open a free bank, so I did what any
logical person does. I rented a real bank, grabbed a ton of
money, hired all my friends as tellers, and then bought a
billboard and paid Chandler to flip a sign. And here's what
happened.
Kit Pulliam: In 2019, the mister beast YouTube channel uploaded
this video called, I opened a free bank. Like you might expect
from the title, mister beast, whose real name is Jimmy
Donaldson, didn't offer any of the services banks generally do.
Instead of storing or loaning money, Donaldson and his friends
gave money away to everyone who entered.
Mr. Beast: How are you doing? I gave a six year old a thousand
dollars. Okay. I'll let more in. Alright.
Chandler
Kit Pulliam: Obviously, this wasn't a real business.
Donaldson and his friends were away all the money they started
with, at least $100,000.
Mr. Beast: We broke the bank. That bank said I don't have any
money. Don't cry. Lost money. We're done.
Kit Pulliam: Six years later, on 12/03/2025, Jimmy Donaldson
formally announced he will actually be launching a
financial services platform called MrBeast Financial. Other
influencers and celebrities, including Charlie D'Amelio, ASAP
Rocky, and Kim Kardashian, have invested in or partnered with
companies in this heavily regulated industry. But he'll be
the first to actually own one. A lot has changed in the six years
between his 2019 video and now. In that time, Donaldson
partnered with or started several new business ventures,
including ghost kitchens, chocolate bars, and Lunchables,
and grew Beast Industries to be worth billions of dollars.
But how did he get to this point? What does it mean for
Jimmy mister Beast to own a bank? Will his content have to
change to avoid regulatory trouble? And is there anything
in Donaldson's background that would cement him as a
trustworthy financial services owner? To find out, we have to
go back to 2017.
That's when 19 year old Jimmy Donaldson got his very first
brand deal from a collectibles app called Quidd, which later
pivoted to NFTs before shutting down in 2025. But in 2017,
instead of keeping the $10,000 Quidd gave him for the
sponsorship, he used it to make his very first in a long line of
philanthropy videos. The video titled giving a random homeless
man $10,000 is a lot less polished than his current work.
Donaldson is deeply awkward through the whole process, over
explaining the concept of a sponsor and struggling to say
that, yes, he is actually giving $10,000 to a man who thinks he's
being pranked on camera.
Mr. Beast: And just so we are all on the same page, this is
not my money. This is a new weekly series where I'm getting
companies to sponsor my videos and I'm giving 100% of what they
pay me away to random people. For example, this video is
sponsored by Quidd. I'm doing a brand deal for Quidd and they
paid me $10,000 and I'm taking that $10,000 and giving it to
this homeless man. So before I show me giving the homeless man
$10,000, I need to mention Quidd because they were so generous
enough to sponsor this video and allow this to happen.
Quidd is a new app.
Kit Pulliam: But this video set trends that Donaldson continues
throughout his YouTube career. Although the video is
significantly more subdued than what we've come to expect from
him, there's still some of his trademark hyperbole. For
example, he shows text calling Quidd the best app ever as part
of his ad read. And up to today, Donaldson still says he invests
most of the money he makes back into his YouTube channel. That's
how he's able to make so many big splashy videos, giving away
hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Recently, he even said he had to borrow money from his mom to pay
for his upcoming wedding because he keeps very little of what he
makes.
Mr. Beast: It's funny talking about my personal finances cause
no one ever believes anything I say. So, I mean, because they're
like, you're a billionaire. I'm like, net worth. I don't I have
negative money right now. I'm borrowing money.
That's how little money I have. Technically, everyone watching
this video has more money than me.
Kit Pulliam: So while this 2017 video is his first brand deal,
Donaldson's first major brush with financial services comes
later in April 2021. The mister beast channel had truly made it
by then. The channel was just about to pass 60,000,000
subscribers. That's when he partnered with the financial
technology company Current for a giveaway. 100,000 fans who
signed up for the fintech platform would be awarded
$100,000.
That's a whole $1 per sign up. Not exactly worth divulging your
sensitive financial info. However, months later, if fans
connected their direct deposit to Current, they could also get
an exclusive MrBeast hoodie for the trouble. You might be
thinking, so what? YouTubers get sponsorships all the time.
But this wasn't just a sponsorship relationship.
Donaldson actually invested in Current, which he didn't mention
sponsorship read. What he did say in that read is that Current
is better than the bank you're with. Both of these things can
get him into regulatory trouble.
Alexandria Degree: He has to disclose if he's his
relationship to really any financial product.
Kit Pulliam: That's Alexandria Degree, CEO and virtual chief
compliance officer of Ask Degree. I spoke with her about
the ins and outs of the regulations Donaldson will have
to deal with as the new owner of a financial services platform.
Alexandria Degree: The biggest, area of regulatory concern that
he's going to have is UDAP.
Kit Pulliam: UDAP stands for unfair, deceptive, or abusive
acts or practices.
Alexandria Degree: We we kinda, in the industry, say it's really
the marketing regulation. So it's it's a a regulation that
ensures that whether it's through print or through talk or
through whatever medium that you're communicating to the
public, that you're communicating true and factual
information about the product that's being offered. That's a a
huge one, because it's it's very easy to violate that that
regulation. As an example, you know, to say we have the
greatest, checking account available, that can be a
significant issue because one of the things that UDAP says is
that you have to be able to prove whatever you say. So how
do you prove that you have the greatest checking account using
extreme light language like greatest or lowest or fastest or
best or, you know, any of those types of of things that we so
easily say, especially in the influencer space you're used to
using, you really have to pull that type of language back and
be much more tactful in what you say as it relates to financial
products.
Kit Pulliam: This is especially an issue for Donaldson. So many
of his videos rely on that type of over the top language to pull
his fans in and keep their attention. It served him well
since his very first philanthropy video all those
years ago.
Mr. Beast: And just so we are all on the same page, this is
not my money.
Kit Pulliam: Time will tell whether Donaldson will be able
to switch to a more regulatory friendly tone and if his fans
will tolerate the change. But he can't just ignore these
regulations, especially since his huge following leans young.
Alexandria Degree: You know, you can't talk about it in the same
way you you'll talk about, you know, selling the next best
bubble gum. Like, you there's there's a lot of scrutiny. And,
obviously, because of his his the size of his brand, his
personal brand and and just who he is, there's gonna be
watchdogs. So, you know, it's it's in his best interest to,
reel it in.
Kit Pulliam: His next big fintech partnership would take
place in 2024 when he partnered with MoneyLion as part of a
giveaway during Beast Games. MoneyLion is a gamified fintech.
In addition to the regular services you'd expect from a
financial technology company, it advertises Moneylion Games,
which offers cash rewards in exchange for playing partnered
games. Beast Games, of course, is mister beast TV show based on
his YouTube videos inspired by the TV show Squid Game. The show
made tens of millions of dollars, not enough to earn back
the 100,000,000 that Donaldson invested in it, but enough to
make it one of the biggest shows on Amazon Prime Video.
Mr. Beast: I am sitting on $5,000,000 in cash and competing
for it. Open the gates.
Kit Pulliam: In a promotional video for the show, Donaldson
says
Mr. Beast: I teamed up with Moneyline, the easiest place to
borrow, earn, and win money to give the 1,000 losing
contestants $2,000 each.
Kit Pulliam: In order to sign up for the giveaway, you had to
make a free account with MoneyLion.
Mr. Beast: To enter, just scan this QR code or visit
moneyline.com/pskins. And finally
Kit Pulliam: And that's pretty much all of his current
experience with financial services platforms outside of
occasional sponsors. Brand deals, sponsorships, and content
co productions with existing companies. If you're thinking,
that's not a lot of experience for a soon to be financial
services leader, I agree. As recently as 2024, he said he
didn't even have access to Beast Industries' master bank account.
That's controlled by Sue Perisher, his mom, former prison
warden, and current Beast Industries chief compliance
officer.
If he doesn't have a strong background in finances, you'd
expect he'd at least have a stellar track record as a
businessman. Right? Well, in 2020, Donaldson partnered with a
company called Virtual Dining Concepts to launch Mr. Beast
Burger, a ghost kitchen enterprise. Ghost kitchens are
establishments that make food out of other companies'
kitchens, primarily for delivery apps.
Complaints quickly came in about gross food and undercooked
meats. This resulted in Donaldson cutting ties with his
business partner. In 2023, he even launched a lawsuit against
them. Virtual Dining Concepts launched a countersuit, saying
that Donaldson failed to fulfill contractual obligations by
speaking poorly about the brand on social media. Litigation is
ongoing.
And then there was Lunchly, Beast's 2024 Lunchables
competitor. It received complaints about alleged moldy
cheese. Consumer Reports also published an article showing
that despite claims otherwise, the Lunchleys they tested
weren't healthier than Lunchables. Lunchly challenged
Consumer Reports' test methodology and findings and
said the company did not, quote unquote, believe that the
testing performed on the Lunchly kits provides reliable data. The
company also noted that its products are regularly tested
for heavy metals, which they cited as naturally occurring and
are often in a variety of foods.
Not all of Donaldson's business moves are doomed to fail. In
2022, he launched a chocolate bar brand called Feastables
that, according to docs sent to investors, makes him more money
than his YouTube videos.
Mr. Beast: You've heard me say that Feastful's is the best
tasting chocolate in the world.
Kit Pulliam: So all of this, along with his track record of
pumping money into projects he later abandons, tells us that
Donald son might be a better marketer than he is a
businessman. And if he's not a financial expert and he's not a
businessman, then why is he starting a financial services
company? The honest answer is that it fits well into his
existing brand. Donaldson is known for having a lot of money
precisely because he reinvests it all back into his content,
which is often about money. His very visible spending and lavish
giveaways give the impression that he's loaded even if he
doesn't have a lot of cash on hand.
And the young people who watch him see his success as
aspirational. If they do what he does, maybe they could have the
life he has. Financial services could give him a steadier
paycheck than the famously fickle YouTube algorithm as long
as he's able to avoid the dangers of messing up in a
highly regulated industry. In 2025, Elite Pitch Deck said
Beast Industries plan to mitigate some of those risks by
white labeling a preexisting fintech. In February 2026,
MrBeast Financial announced it had done just that, acquiring a
fintech platform called Step.
Because Step is already operating, we can use it to
guess at what Donaldson might offer once mister beast
financial is up and running. He could still change what services
the app offers, and the leaked pitch deck hints that he might
expand into other financial areas, including loans and
insurance. But this at least gives us a good place to start.
STEP's front page declares itself banking for the next
generation. It offers products designed for children and young
adults just starting to manage their own finances.
That branding meshes well with Donaldson's audience, which is
largely made up of kids, teens, and college students. If
children continue to be allowed to use the app, Donaldson will
have to contend with even stricter regulations. Here's
Alexandria Degree again.
Alexandria Degree: Some of the regulations that apply
generally, they get enhanced when you're dealing with a
minor. There's an assumption of a certain level of knowledge or
intelligence that the average consumer would have about any
particular product. And so when you're dealing with a a a child
audience, that assumption is even lower, meaning there's an
expectation that they know even less about how a checking
account works or how a savings account works. And so you have
to be even more cautious about your disclosures and your
language and what you're saying and making sure that you're
giving enough information so that they can make earnest good
decisions about their, financial product shopping experience.
Kit Pulliam: Donaldson seems to be hoping to get ahead of
regulatory requirements by making financial literacy videos
as part of his YouTube content.
Mr. Beast: I think it would be fun to start weaving in more,
you know, tones in our videos where we educate people.
Probably also on a separate YouTube channel. It's not all
that would fit on the Mr. Beech channel, but educating people on
investing and showing them what is a Roth IRA. And just like
taking my younger audience to a similar experience I had with
Woody back in the day.
You probably could find that video where you're talking about
investing. And so I'd love to make financial content on end.
It just feels like a a nice fit for us because we do so much
with money.
Kit Pulliam: Offering financial literacy education is one way
that banks show regulators their users are well informed.
Alexandria Degree: Providing financial literacy helps that
particular bank or fintech make the argument that, yes, we are
doing as much as we can to make sure that the public and our
buyers have a general baseline of knowledge about what they're
possibly getting into.
Kit Pulliam: This isn't just important from perspective.
These regulations exist because kids and young adults really do
have limited information about how to manage their finances.
Even fintechs that meet regulatory standards can lead
young people into dark patterns. And STEP appears to be waving a
huge red flag. It offers cash advances through a program
called STEP Early Pay.
If you're not familiar, cash advances are short term loans
that let you borrow money from your paycheck in advance with
the intent that you'll pay the loan back in full whenever your
next paycheck hits. Cash advances are less predatory than
their big brother, payday loans. Those come with incredibly high
interest rates that will quickly dig you into a hole you can't
get out of. STEP claims that its cash advances don't come with an
interest rate or late fees. But like many other cash advances,
the app charges a fee to get the money instantly.
If you're taking out a cash advance, you probably can't
afford to wait a few days. Even without high interest rates,
cash advances can get young adults into debt cycles they
might struggle to get out of, finding themselves borrowing
from their paycheck every pay cycle. It's possible that
Donaldson will shut down early pay when he's done taking over,
but I think it's unlikely. Both Current and Moneylion, two
fintechs he had major partnerships with, offer cash
advances. Current even promotes its cash advances on the very
top of the MrBeast promo page from their 2021 partnership.
Importantly, users under 18 can't use STEP Early Pay, but
with the permission of their guardian, they can open a STEP
investing account. STEP currently offers investing in
stocks and ETFs, but there's a good chance it will expand to
offer Bitcoin and other crypto investments once Donaldson is in
charge. Earlier in 2026, the largest Ethereum treasury,
Bitmine Immersion Technologies, invested $200,000,000 in Beast
Industries. Bitmine's cofounder and chairman, Tom Lee, called
out MrBeast Financial specifically as a way to get
younger people into cryptocurrency. The CEO of Beast
Industries, Jeff Hausenbold, also said he looked forward to
finding ways to collaborate and incorporate crypto into Mr.
Beast Financial. Between cash advances and risky investing
strategies, you might be wondering, is there any reason
to go with Mr. Beast Financial? There are ways to start young
people on investing that are relatively low risk, stable, and
good for their financial education. Crypto isn't one of
them.
Even if you only invest in so called stable coins, you're
entering into a high risk, volatile market that makes even
fully grown adults go broke. Kids are even more likely to
make poor financial decisions around crypto, especially if
Donaldson promotes it as a great idea. I'm not the only one who
thinks so. Senator Elizabeth Warren recently sent a letter to
Donaldson with concerns about the possibility of STEP offering
crypto trading among other things. And while investing in
individual stocks might be worthwhile as a learning
opportunity under the supervision of a trusted adult,
kids don't exactly make the best day traders.
STEP's other financial offerings appear less sinister. It offers
a secured credit card, a type of credit card that only lets users
borrow up to the money they have in a connected spending account.
In practice, it functions as a riskier debit card that lets you
build up your credit score. Just keep in mind that you still need
to pay it off each month or you'll have to pay interest.
STEP also has a somewhat confusing membership system that
comes with credit card rewards and 3% back on the fintech
spending account.
They aren't bad perks, but they also aren't unique. If you're an
adult, you can find all of them at other fintechs, online banks,
or credit unions. One last thing to note is that STEP is not a
bank. Banks are chartered with the state or federal government,
and they can offer FDIC insurance that protects your
money in case your bank fails. STEP can't offer FDIC insurance
directly.
It has to partner with another bank that actually stores your
money. But FDIC insurance isn't as helpful as you think it is
for fintech specifically.
Alexandria Degree: So one thing to note, FDIC insurance is an
insurance that kicks in if a bank fails. So I specifically
said if a bank fails because FDIC insurance is really only
for banks. It's not for fintechs. The fintech can have
bank accounts with ABC Bank that they're offering through their
platform. And if ABC Bank fails, then the insurance kicks in.
But if the FinTech fails, FDIC insurance does not kick in.
Kit Pulliam: These days, banks very rarely fail. One of the
reasons Silicon Valley Bank was such big news was because its
failure was so unusual. But many fintechs are startups, and
startups fail all the time. What's more, fintechs generally
have to partner with third parties to communicate with the
banks, and those can fail too. In fact, this happened in 2024
with Evolve Bank, the bank that STEP is currently partnering
with for FDIC insurance.
Fintech customers across many different platforms lost access
to their funds when another company Evolve worked with,
Synapse, filed for bankruptcy.
Alexandria Degree: Synapse was basically, a middleman that
would connect to the fintechs on one side. Amongst this
relationship, there's what is called a ledger. As you have a a
ledger for your own personal account, it's an account of
where the funds are at. And so the debacle was no one actually
had accurate records of that ledger. And so when the accuracy
of the records came into question and you have multiple
fintechs and multiple banks in this very complicated
relationship, there was a question about whose funds
actually belong to who, and then there was a shortfall.
Kit Pulliam: The fintech customers involved didn't get
access to their money for months or even years. Years. Some still
don't have access to their money today. Even in best case
scenarios, fintechs come with risks that normal banks just
don't have. Personally wouldn't keep my main bank account in the
fintech, but everyone has different levels of personal
risk they're okay with.
Mine is fairly low, but it's important that young people go
into it knowing that the step account comes with extra risks.
Even then, young people, especially children, probably
don't have a well calibrated understanding of how comfortable
they are in taking financial risks or even what those risks
could mean for them if the worst happens. Happens. This segment
is not financial advice. Neither I nor Never Post are financial
advisers.
But for whatever it's worth, as a financial journalist, I
personally wouldn't recommend going with whatever financial
services Donaldson ends up offering. His videos make him
look successful, but his business moves don't give me
faith that he's a better fit for a fintech than any other
influencer. Influencer. His approach works better for
creating content, trying a bunch of things and seeing what
sticks. But if a young person in your life is interested in the
product, the best thing you can do is make sure they're aware of
what they might be getting into and to let them know that
MrBeast Financial isn't their only option, though it may be
the only one that has a partnership with a candy bar.
And if they start talking about how MrBeast let them in on the
best crypto deal ever, maybe alert the CFPB. Thanks so much
to Alexandria Degree for speaking with me. You can find
her at ask.degree. You can find more of my work at Business
Insider and the Financial Health Network.
Hans Buetow: That is the show we have for you this week. We will
be back in the main feed next week on or around Thursday,
April 16. But important announcement, before then, this
coming Sunday, April 12 is National Licorice Day. So I want
you to right now stop this no. Don't stop this episode.
Keep the episode playing, but get in your cart. Drop
everything. Get to your local Icelandic grocer and just start
grabbing bags, stocking up on salty sweets. And speaking of
salty sweets, did you know for a salty little $4 a month, which
is like the cost of a big bag of candy, I'm pretty sure, you can
become a member at neverpost.st? That salt helps us keep the
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make plus livestreams, plus news, plus chats, and gives you
that sweet sweet deal of getting an ad free feed of the show
along with that chewy satisfaction of supporting
independent media that cleanses your palate and refreshes your
outlook.
Unless you don't like licorice, which case being a member is the
exact opposite of everything I just said. Never Post producers
are Audrey Evans, Georgia Hampton, and the mysterious
doctor. First name, last name. Our contributing producer this
week is Kit Pulliam. Our senior producer is Hans Buto.
That's me. Our executive producer is Jason Oberholzer,
and the show's host is Mike Ragnetta. The world is made of
paper. Although I walk very carefully, the ground tears
beneath my feet. Paperworld, for Diana, by William j Harris.
Never Post is a production of Charts and Leisure and
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