Beast Industries, the entertainment company founded by YouTuber Jimmy “MrBeast” Donaldson, is acquiring Step, a mobile banking app aimed at teens and newborn adults, in its most crucial financial move yet.
In Monday’s post to X Donaldson he said the motivation for the acquisition was to equip newborn people with the tools and guidance needed to navigate personal finance from an early age.
Beast Industries CEO Jeff Housenbold he said“Financial health is fundamental to overall well-being, yet too many people do not have access to the tools and knowledge they need to build financial security.”
The acquisition cost was not disclosed.
The YouTube channel’s expansion into finance comes after receiving a $200 million investment in January from Ethereum treasury firm BitMine Immersion Technologies and a separate trademark filing for MrBeast Financial in October.
The trademark application mentions “cryptocurrency exchange services,” “cryptocurrency payment processing,” and “cryptocurrency through decentralized exchanges.”
However, it is unclear whether the trademark application is related to the acquisition of Step.
Cointelegraph reached out to Beast Industries for comment but did not receive an immediate response.
The step scales to 6.5 million users over 8 years
The Step app is designed to facilitate Gen Z users manage money, build credit, earn rewards and improve their financial knowledge. Checking accounts are insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation through Evolve Bank & Trust.
Since its launch in 2018, the banking app has already gained 6.5 million users and raised approximately $500 million from the likes of Steph Curry, Justin Timberlake, Will Smith and Charli D’Amelio.
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The YouTube channel MrBeast has 466 million subscribers, the largest channel on the video streaming platform.
Housenbold said the acquisition of Step “enables us to reach our audiences where they are with practical, technology-driven solutions that can change their financial future for the better.”
At the time of BitMine’s $200 million strategic investment, its CEO Tom Lee said that the company viewed the deal as a long-term bet on the creator economy, stating:
“We believe MrBeast and Beast Industries is the leading content creator of our generation, with reach and engagement unmatched by GenZ, GenAlpha and Millennials.”
Lee said BitMine’s corporate values are “strongly aligned” with Beast Industries, but made no mention of cryptocurrency integration at the time.
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