GM. This is Milk Road, the crypto newsletter that’s smoother than your favorite Spotify playlist shuffle.
When it comes to investing, having an edge makes all the difference:
- It could be a piece of insight most people haven’t noticed yet
- Or it could be spotting a trend before it goes mainstream
👉 That edge gives you a head start, and sometimes, that’s all you need.
In our previous Portfolio Update, we talked about financial super apps.
Why we think they're not just another hot narrative, but a major shift.
These apps offer better products, cleaner interfaces, and a smoother experience overall.
They’re built for how people actually use and manage money in 2025.
Fintechs understood this early and have been winning because of it.
Now they’re preparing for the next big shift.
They’re starting to adopt blockchain technology.
👉 Not for hype, but because it helps them deliver better products, lower their costs, and reach a much larger market.
That’s our edge.
And while it might not be obvious to everyone yet, we’re already seeing the biggest fintechs making the moves behind the scenes.
This is why we believe the fintechs following this model are in the best position to lead the next wave of financial innovation.
We’ve already looked at names like Robinhood, Coinbase, Ether.fi, and Jupiter. All great examples of this new wave.
But there’s a bigger picture here.
This isn’t just a U.S. or Europe story. And it’s not only about what the crypto crowd is paying attention to.
It’s going to be global.
And the more we explore what’s happening worldwide, the more one name keeps standing out.
It doesn’t get a lot of headlines and it’s not the first company people mention in blockchain conversations. But it’s quietly becoming a giant.
We’re talking about Nubank, which is the biggest digital bank in Latin America.
While others are still fighting to grow their monthly active users (MAU), Nubank already has over 100 million people using their app every month.
Source: Milk Road
Are you surprised? Don’t be.
You might come across bigger numbers from the above listed fintechs, but those usually count registered or verified users, not people who actually use the app regularly.
That’s why having 104 million monthly active users, like Nubank does, is such a big deal.
And this kind of scale matters.
Because in fintech, users are everything. They bring momentum, feedback, growth, and defensibility.
A user base this strong becomes a moat that’s incredibly hard to compete with.
- So why isn’t everyone talking about Nubank?
- What sets them apart from other fintechs, for better or worse?
- How are they planning to grow from here?
- And the big one... is this a stock worth buying?
These are exactly the kinds of questions that come up when we start thinking about Nubank.
And if you're just as curious as we are to find the answers, you're in the right place.
Let’s get into it.
WHAT IS NUBANK
Ever heard of Nubank?
Chances are, you haven’t. It’s not one of those flashy names that everyone’s tweeting about or throwing around on finance podcasts.
But that’s how it goes with a lot of successful companies.
People overlook them… until they can’t. The numbers get too big, the growth too strong, and suddenly everyone’s paying attention.
That’s exactly what’s happening with Nubank.
👉 Nubank is a digital bank out of Brazil and it’s one of the biggest, fastest-growing fintechs on the planet.
It launched in 2013 in São Paulo with a simple mission: to fix everything people hate about traditional banks in Brazil.
We’re talking high fees, awful service, and endless paperwork.
Nubank flipped the script with an app that’s clean, transparent, and actually helps people to meet their financial needs. No branches, no nonsense.
By mid 2025, Nubank had 127 million customers across Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia.
That’s huge. Think of it as Brazil and Mexico’s version of Revolut or Chime but on a much bigger scale.
People love this bank.
Like, really love it. It’s often called the most loved bank in Latin America.
To sum it up: Nubank is a mobile-first, customer-obsessed fintech that’s become the go-to bank for tens of millions in Latin America. While old-school banks were stuck in the past, Nubank quietly became the future.
It’s playing in the same league as the top fintechs we’ve covered before, just doing it in a different part of the world... and at a massive scale.
But let’s take a step back for a moment.
To understand how they got so big, so fast, we need a little history lesson. That’s where the story really starts.
THE RISE OF NUBANK
It all began when David Vélez, a former Sequoia Capital partner, moved to Brazil to open a new fund.
He went to open a bank account and ended up waiting in line for hours, only to get slapped with high fees and terrible service.
👉 That experience was a wake-up call. Banking in Brazil felt like it was stuck 30 years in the past.
His reaction? “This is insane. Someone needs to fix this.”
So he quit his job and decided to build the solution himself. That’s how Nubank was born.
In May 2014, they launched its first product: a no-fee, international credit card (the famous purple card).
And it was a game changer.
- No annual fees - a big deal in Brazil, where most banks were charging between $100 and $400 a year just to have a credit card.
- 100% app-based - no branches, no paperwork, full control from your phone.
- Launched as invite-only - people bragged about getting the purple card → huge status symbol and viral marketing for free.
By the end of 2014, around 100 thousand users had already joined. The demand kept growing, so in 2015 they opened up the waitlist.
Then in 2017, they launched NuConta which is a free digital bank account that comes with a debit card.
👉 The timing couldn’t have been better. Between 2014 and 2017, smartphone use in Brazil was skyrocketing, and Nubank was perfectly positioned to take advantage of that shift.
In 2018, they added personal loans. By 2019 and 2020, they had rolled out investments, a rewards program, and business accounts.
By the end of 2020, Nubank had reached 50 million users.
What started as a single no-fee credit card had grown into a full financial platform.
If you're thinking this all sounds a bit familiar, you're not wrong.
Robinhood kicked things off with zero-commission stock trading. Revolut made waves by offering the best forex rates through a slick mobile app. Coinbase started as a simple crypto exchange.
Same pattern, different market.
✍️ Each one began with a single, high-impact product that solved a real pain point. Then they expanded, step by step, into full-blown financial super-apps.
Nubank used the same strategy, but pulled it off in Latin America and took it to a whole new level.
Alright, let’s switch things up and see how Nubank stacks up against other fintechs.
NUBANK VS OTHERS
We’re going to compare Nubank with Robinhood and Coinbase, since Revolut isn’t publicly traded and we don’t have enough data for a full comparison.
We picked three key financial metrics to help paint the bigger picture:
- Total revenue – how much money they bring in
- Adjusted EBITDA – how much profit they generate from their core operations
- Operating expenses – how much they spend to keep things running
The goal here is simple. We just want a clearer view of how these companies stack up against each other.
We’re looking at their numbers over the last 12 months.
Source: Milk Road
When it comes to adjusted EBITDA, Nubank leads the pack with $4.09 billion. Coinbase comes next with $3.53 billion, followed by Robinhood with $2.37 billion. We can say they’re at pretty similar levels.
Next up is total revenue, and here the differences are much bigger.
✍️ Nubank is way ahead with a massive $14.09 billion. Coinbase pulled in $7.37 billion, and Robinhood made $4.20 billion.
That’s a huge gap between Nubank and the others.
But hold on… their adjusted EBITDA numbers were much closer, so what is the deal? Great catch. And the reason is simple: each company operates with very different margins.
We’ll talk about that at the end.
The last metric is operating expenses.
Here, Coinbase tops the list with $5.75 billion in costs. Nubank follows with $3.89 billion, and Robinhood is the leanest, spending just $1.87 billion to run its operations.
This simple comparison gives us a clear view of how these companies are performing financially and where they stand against each other.
Now, just looking at those numbers, where do you think Nubank’s valuation should land? 🤔
And just FYI: Robinhood is currently valued at $115 billion, while Coinbase sits at $73 billion.
Well, you know what, I won't answer that just yet. There's one more thing we want to show you first.
We’re going to compare revenue growth over the last four quarters for all three companies.
Source: Milk Road
You’ll notice that Q4 2024 (blue columns) was a massive growth quarter for both Coinbase and Robinhood.
Any idea why? Because crypto was booming and their revenues surged right along with it. 👏
Coinbase saw a 94% jump, Robinhood was up 5%, while Nubank only grew by about 2%.
At first, that might make you question Nubank’s performance.
But then you realize something important:
👉 Nubank’s steady revenue growth likely comes from the fact that it's not tied to the ups and downs of the crypto market.
And that’s exactly right.
Nubank’s performance is almost completely independent of what’s happening in the crypto markets, which isn’t the case for Coinbase and Robinhood.
That’s actually a good thing:
- Nubank could be a good hedge against crypto volatility.
- They haven’t entered the crypto space yet, which could be a major growth opportunity.
We’ll elaborate on this in a sec, but first, let’s break down how Nubank actually makes money.
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- What their core product really is
- Whether they can keep the momentum going
- Our growth projections
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