The Binance Hack, and Why Fintech Is Missing the Physical Economy

This week on This Week in Fintech, Sasha Pilch starts with the fallout from the Binance hack, which has seen around $6.3 billion in assets stolen from the world’s largest crypto exchange. Larry DiTore and Amethyst Martinez break down what happened, where the recovery effort stands, and why an attack of this scale raises much bigger questions about security, trust and coordination across the crypto industry.

Then Sasha sits down with Daniel Simon, founder and CEO of Coast, to talk about a very different corner of financial services: the plumbers, landscapers, construction companies, transport operators and other businesses that make up what Daniel calls the physical economy. Coast is building expense management and payments software specifically for companies with employees out in the field, where controlling exactly how a company card is used can matter more than points or cashback.

Daniel explains why these huge industries have been largely overlooked by fintech, how Coast is taking on decades-old fleet card providers, and how data from vehicles and telematics systems can help stop fraud in real time. He also shares what he learned from building and selling Bread, why vertical specialization can create a much stronger product, and why his team spends less time at fintech conferences and more time at events like World of Concrete and PestWorld.

It’s an episode about two very different kinds of trust problems: protecting billions of dollars in digital assets, and building financial tools that actually understand how real-world businesses operate.

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