The Second Curve of Top Global Influencers: MrBeast's Fintech Strategy

Author: Zen, PANews

“I want to do something bigger.” On February 9, Beast Industries announced the acquisition of Step, a teen and Gen Z financial app that focuses on “credit building, savings tools, and debit cards.”

If you only interpret this as "another side hustle for internet celebrities," then you're underestimating the scale of this operation. Because prior to this news, the market had already seen much clearer groundwork laid.

In January 2026, publicly listed company Bitmine announced a $200 million investment in Beast Industries. Its chairman, Tom Lee, publicly stated that MrBeast's future was directly linked to the narrative of a "digital financial platform." As early as October 2025, Beast had already filed a trademark application for "MRBEAST FINANCIAL," securing a massive market share in one fell swoop.

All of this is happening against a more contrasting backdrop. As of February 2026, MrBeast's main channel had reached approximately 467 million subscribers, making it the world's most dominant content machine; however, at the same time, Beast Industries' media business has been reported to be mired in a structural dilemma of "high revenue, even higher costs."

Top YouTubers worldwide are losing money with each new video they make.

MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, is arguably the most successful and creative video creator on YouTube. Now 27 years old and boasting 467 million subscribers, MrBeast has been creating content for 14 years.

In early 2012, at the age of 13, MrBeast launched his YouTube channel, "MrBeast6000," thus beginning his video creation career. Initially, MrBeast experimented with all the algorithm-recommended popular content, from game gameplay like Minecraft to estimating the wealth of other YouTubers. However, these videos failed to attract attention, with views generally hovering around a thousand. But this didn't stop him from continuing to create; MrBeast believed that with more effort, he would eventually stand out.

MrBeast's first successful account launch came in January 2017 when he uploaded a video of himself counting to 100,000, which quickly went viral, garnering tens of thousands of views within days. Seeing the effectiveness of this model, MrBeast found his initial formula for viral success: extreme challenges, emotional stimulation, and shareable gimmicks. He then went on to count to 200,000, spin a fidget spinner for 24 hours straight, and watch music videos for 10 consecutive hours. He dropped out of university to dedicate himself entirely to running his YouTube channel.

As a full-time creator, MrBeast became increasingly extravagant and attention-grabbing in his creative endeavors. He donated $10,000 to livestreamers with zero viewers, poured 100 million "water babies" into swimming pools, spent a night in a mental hospital, and soaked in slime for a day, among other things, resulting in a surge in his fan base. To invest in these creative videos, MrBeast not only relied on advertising revenue and merchandise sales but also signed brand collaboration agreements worth tens of thousands of dollars with numerous companies. These companies, based on his massive fan base and high viewership, were happy to pay hefty fees.

In March 2019, MrBeast assembled over thirty top YouTube influencers with a combined 200 million subscribers for a real-life battle royale event. Electronic Arts, the developer of the battle royale game Apex Legends, provided a $200,000 prize for the event. The video quickly went viral, garnering over 15 million views in a short period. From then on, MrBeast embraced a creative approach focused on entertainment-style production, thus embarking on their path to becoming the king of YouTubers.

The live-action $456,000 squid game was MrBeast's breakout video, officially cementing his status as a phenomenal creator and marking one of the most significant milestones in his career. The video became one of the most-viewed videos on YouTube in 2021, garnering over 130 million views in a week. That same year, MrBeast also hosted his third annual influencer championship, with 15 participants and a prize pool of $1 million. In January 2022, Forbes magazine named MrBeast the highest-paid creator on YouTube, estimating his 2021 earnings at $54 million.

However, due to its high budget and variety show-style production model, MrBeast continued to invest in increasingly extravagant challenges, sets, filming, and post-production, causing the cost curve to rise rapidly with scale. Even though a single video could generate millions of dollars in advertising revenue and brand collaborations, he reinvested almost all of that revenue into the next round of filming, creating a cycle of higher budgets, larger scale, and stronger reach. MrBeast described himself as "reinvesting everything to an almost foolish degree."

According to Business Insider, its media business generated approximately $224 million in revenue in 2024, but incurred costs of approximately $344 million, indicating a clear loss-making structure in the content segment.

Therefore, for MrBeast, which started with video creation, its content business is closer to customer acquisition and brand advertising, focusing attention and trust on the MrBeast IP. What's truly easier to profit from are its replicable and scalable consumer goods and retail lines.

Chocolate bars became the pillar of a business empire

MrBeast's first large-scale experiment in monetizing content traffic and personal IP was the launch of "MrBeast Burger" in 2020. Unlike traditional fast food chains, MrBeast Burger is a "ghost kitchen" model that emerged during the pandemic: the brand does not build its own stores, but instead partners with third-party operators to package the menu, marketing and delivery channels for existing fast food stores such as convenience stores and mom-and-pop shops.

The advantage of this model is its extremely rapid expansion speed. Unlike traditional restaurants that slowly climb the ladder through opening stores, selecting locations, and decorating, MrBeast leverages its expertise in content distribution to reach consumers in a very short time. In the first three months after its launch, MrBeast Burger sold over 1 million burgers. In the following two years, the brand continued its rapid expansion, signing approximately 1,700 "franchisees" by 2022. In September 2022, MrBeast also opened its first physical store in New Jersey, attracting approximately 10,000 fans on opening day.

However, the ghost kitchen model also has fatal flaws. Because fulfillment is handled by partner kitchens, MrBeast Burger struggles to maintain consistent quality control and service standards. As a result, processing issues such as undercooked burgers and soggy fries are difficult to resolve, leading to numerous customer complaints that the products are unpalatable. Furthermore, delivery problems such as order errors and disorganized packaging continue to arise, causing irreversible damage to the MrBeast brand.

Faced with deeply entrenched problems, MrBeast decided to abandon its hamburger business and sued its partner, Virtual Dining Concepts, in court. Virtual Dining Concepts subsequently retaliated and filed a countersuit, pushing the dispute into a protracted legal battle.

Unlike MrBeast Burger, MrBeast's second main chocolate brand, "Feastables," adopted a traditional consumer goods strategy. This involves producing standardized products, using retail channels, and building brand power into a shelf-shopping business with repeat purchases. Feastables officially launched in January 2022, with its first product being the MrBeast Bar chocolate bar. It also used gamified interaction and reward mechanisms to transfer the interactive advantages of its online content to offline consumer goods.

On October 2, 2023, Feastables partnered with the Charlotte Hornets, becoming their official NBA jersey sponsor for the 2023-24 season, further expanding its brand influence. Currently, the Feastables brand serves as a cash flow pillar and growth engine in MrBeast's business strategy. Its 2024 sales were approximately $250 million, with a profit of approximately $20 million; in 2025, Feastables' sales are projected to reach approximately $520 million.

In addition, MrBeast co-founded the snack set brand Lunchly with several other influencers, aiming to compete with the well-known lunchbox brand Lunchables. However, Lunchly's products are similar to Lunchables' existing products, have relatively low nutritional content, and have been criticized for containing mold on their packaging. All Lunchly products include a Feastables chocolate bar, leading some media outlets to suggest that this product is designed to boost Feastables' sales.

Lunchly has drawn considerable criticism. Popular YouTube gaming blogger DanTDM called Lunchly "selling junk to unsuspecting kids who don't trust anyone trying to sell them junk." The British youth movement Bite Back stated that it was particularly worrying for a social media star to promote high-sugar, high-fat foods, while the food and nutrition chair of the children's charity described the product launch as "junk food marketing."

Key assistant Jeff Housenbold joins

In early 2024, during MrBeast's fundraising period, Chamath Palihapitiya, the venture capitalist who led its first round of funding, introduced him to Jeff Housenbold, who subsequently joined the company and spearheaded its professionalization.

Housenbold is indeed the perfect assistant to help MrBeast manage his business empire. Housenbold was the CEO of Shutterfly, leading the company to a successful IPO in 2006 and transforming it into the fifth-largest independent e-commerce company in the United States. In addition, Housenbold served as the managing partner of SoftBank Investment Advisors, helping to manage and lead the company's $100 billion Vision Fund. His investments include companies such as DoorDash, Rappi, Compass, and Katerra.

In response to Beast Industries' situation of "high revenue but higher costs" in its media business, Housenbold introduced a stricter budget process after taking office and set up a dedicated team to assess budget feasibility before filming, with the goal of improving spending discipline while ensuring program quality.

In the past, MrBeast often purchased expensive freebies like Teslas at retail price. Under Housenbold's leadership, the company has shifted more towards obtaining free or discounted products through brand partnerships, and has established a dedicated brand partnership team to do so. Housenbold's goal is "to make everything the company does profitable," and he is simultaneously pushing forward with renegotiating advertising contracts, raising prices, and using tools/AI to reduce costs.

Acquiring Step, a major step into the financial sector

“We believe that MrBeast and Beast Industries are the most outstanding content creators of our generation, with an impact and user engagement that is unmatched among Gen Z, Alpha, and Millennials,” he said. “Beast Industries is the world’s largest and most innovative creator platform, and our corporate and personal values ​​are highly aligned.”

In January of this year, Bitmine, the largest ETH treasury company, announced a $200 million investment in MrBeast's holding company. Bitmine Chairman Tom Lee stated that he believes MrBeast's future platform will play a key role in the digital finance sector.

MrBeast's financial strategy first gained widespread attention when the company filed a U.S. trademark application for "MRBEAST FINANCIAL" in October 2025, bringing together everything from basic accounts to credit, investment, and even crypto and DeFi into the same brand narrative.

Public entries show that this trademark covers a very broad range of financial businesses. These include mobile banking software, short-term microloans, credit and debit card issuance and transaction processing, investment management, investment banking services, insurance, financial consulting and "financial health education," as well as crypto payment processing and crypto-related descriptions such as "exchanging crypto assets through decentralized exchanges (DEXs)."

On February 9, 2026, Beast Industries officially announced its acquisition of Step, marking its entry into the financial industry. As a next-generation fintech platform, Step claims to have over 7 million users and emphasizes its "full-stack fintech team," aiming to provide financial literacy and financial management products. The platform's financial products are supported by its partner bank, Evolve Bank & Trust (Member FDIC).

Step's core audience is teenagers and Gen Z, which highly overlaps with MrBeast's audience structure. In other words, this acquisition allows MrBeast to acquire an existing banking-as-a-service architecture, card issuance capabilities, and team, and then use its strongest capabilities—traffic and distribution—to acquire customers and educate them.

Traditional Fintech customer acquisition is extremely expensive, while MrBeast possesses a top-tier global attention portal. This theoretically makes its conversion and retention chain more efficient than that of typical financial apps: first, build trust through content; then, implement financial education and basic account products; and gradually expand to more clearly compliant scenarios such as credit building, debit cards/prepaid services. Step's product positioning, targeting young people, is also naturally suited to the "financial enlightenment" narrative. Under the ideal state of high account activity, the long-term value (LTV) of financial products will be significantly higher than that of food retail.

However, there are potential problems here. Even though Step positions itself as a financial education and basic account provider, the mere involvement of teenagers inevitably raises the bar for ethical scrutiny. For example, on communities like Reddit, many users have criticized MrBeast's acquisition of Step, questioning why they keep targeting teenagers and alleging that Step "induces minors to take out loans" and is intentionally using its followers as a traffic pool for exploitation.

Trusting a creator to provide entertainment content and then trusting them to support a child's financial future are two completely different psychological thresholds. Whether parents are willing to entrust their child's financial access to a popular online brand known for its "high stimulation and strong entertainment" is still questionable.

Furthermore, judging from MrBeast's methodology, it excels at using high-intensity incentives and generous rewards as gimmicks to achieve viral spread. However, financial regulators are extremely sensitive to "gamification, lottery-style approaches, and strong inducements."

MrBeast's highly dramatic style may clash with the restraint required by financial compliance. Financial companies have a much lower tolerance for error than snack brands; in the event of technical glitches, complaints, or information disclosure disputes, the public will place all the blame on MrBeast and its brand.

Such a backlash from public opinion has already played out in the cryptocurrency space. Over the past few years, MrBeast's investment activities in the cryptocurrency sector have sparked controversy. PANews previously published an on-chain investigation revealing that it may have used its influence to engage in "pump and dump" operations. Under immense public pressure, MrBeast and its team launched a series of public relations maneuvers aimed at distancing themselves from the issue.

MrBeast now holds a rare card in the hand of traffic, but whether he will use this card to create a more inclusive, transparent, and self-disciplined "path to financial enlightenment," or to monetize his traffic advantage as a shortcut to growth targeting the most sensitive youth group, only he knows the answer.