Y Combinator Brings Crypto and Fintech Interviews to New York for the First Time
Y Combinator is holding in-person startup interviews in New York City this spring, marking the first time the accelerator has conducted its selection process in New York City and a return to in-person interviewing after recent batches moved to video calls.
Y Combinator is holding in-person startup interviews in New York City this spring, marking the first time the accelerator has conducted its selection process in New York City and a return to in-person interviewing after recent batches moved to video calls. The sessions, scheduled during the May and June 2026 interview window, are targeting fintech and crypto founders specifically.
The move is a structural shift for an accelerator that built its reputation on a Bay Area home base. In recent years, YC had migrated much of its interview process to video calls. A physical event in New York, aimed at a defined category of founders, signals something more deliberate: the firm is treating crypto and financial technology as a distinct pipeline worth recruiting for on the ground.
New York already has meaningful weight in YC's existing portfolio. The accelerator currently lists roughly 17 to 18 crypto and Web3 startups headquartered in the city, alongside 69 financial technology companies. For context, YC's total global Crypto/Web3 portfolio stands at 74 companies, making New York's concentration a significant share of that worldwide footprint. That concentration reflects the city's position as a convergence point for Wall Street capital, regulatory infrastructure, and a growing wave of startups trying to connect traditional finance with on-chain systems.
YC's Crypto Posture Is Now Operational, Not Just Rhetorical
The NYC interviews arrive alongside several concrete steps YC has taken to embed crypto into its own operations. Since February 2026, startups in the Spring batch have had the option to receive their roughly $500,000 seed funding in USDC, the dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by Circle. Founders can choose to receive the funds on Ethereum, Solana, or Base, Coinbase's layer-2 network. Nemil Dalal, a visiting partner at YC focused on crypto, described the move as an effort to match practice with thesis. "Stablecoins is one of the key pillars for us. So we just want to live and breathe that as well," Dalal told Fortune in February.
That posture extends to how YC frames the opportunity for founders. The accelerator's 2026 Request for Startups named stablecoins "one of the most mature and promising areas of onchain development," with specific interest in cross-border payment infrastructure and projects that work beyond the US dollar. In September 2025, YC formalized that direction through a partnership with Base and Coinbase Ventures called Fintech 3.0, which invites founders to build on-chain financial services across stablecoins, tokenized assets, and consumer AI finance applications.
The Numbers Behind the Pivot
YC's fintech activity in 2025 was the most aggressive on record. The firm participated in 151 fintech deals during the year, a 24.8 percent increase from 121 in 2024, making it the single most active fintech investor globally by deal volume. The closest competitor, Antler, participated in just 51 rounds. Larger rounds accelerated even faster: YC participated in 64 fintech transactions of $5 million or more, up 146 percent year over year. These figures come from Crunchbase data covering the full 2025 calendar year.
The broader market context supports the momentum. Global fintech venture funding reached $51.8 billion in 2025, a 27 percent increase from the prior year. DeFi (decentralized finance, meaning financial services built directly on blockchain networks) drew $763 million in venture investment in the first quarter of 2025 alone, according to NFX Signal and Web3 VC data.
What This Means for Founders Outside the US
The decision to hold interviews in New York carries particular weight for founders building in the South Asian and African diaspora fintech corridor. YC-backed Karsa, a Winter 2025 company based in New York, illustrates the thesis directly: the startup operates as a stablecoin neobank targeting users in Pakistan, India, Nigeria, Kenya, and Paraguay, allowing them to hold dollar-denominated stablecoins, access US bank accounts, and transact via Visa cards through a peer-to-peer marketplace built on self-custody wallets. The company was co-founded by Shahryar Hasnani, formerly focused on Ethereum infrastructure business development, and Dale Wilson, formerly a lead at an L1 blockchain protocol. The Pakistan market is particularly relevant: the country has seen a surge in peer-to-peer stablecoin use amid rupee depreciation, making dollar-denominated products like Karsa's directly applicable to conditions on the ground.
For founders still based in those markets, the picture is more complicated. YC has quietly scaled back its focus on developing-market startups in recent years. African representation in YC batches dropped from 15 companies in Summer 2021 to roughly three per batch by late 2024, with no African startup making YC's most recent summer batch at all, prompting alumni to launch alternatives including Accelerate Africa, Resilience17, and GoTime AI. A physical NYC interview process benefits founders who can get to the US East Coast. It does not directly solve for those who cannot.
There is also a regulatory layer to consider. New York's BitLicense framework, administered by the state's Department of Financial Services, remains one of the strictest crypto licensing regimes in the world. A proposed state senate bill introduced in January 2026, identified as S4728A, would add criminal penalties for unlicensed crypto operations exceeding $25,000 in a 30-day period. Strike received a BitLicense in March 2026, and eToro activated New York crypto trading in April, suggesting the approval pipeline is moving. But for early-stage founders from outside the US building cross-border stablecoin products, compliance costs in New York remain a real barrier even if the interviews are now held there.
Looking Ahead
YC's application deadlines for the current batch have passed. The firm conducts same-day decisions during its interview process, meaning founders who have already gone through the sessions know their outcomes. With the current cycle effectively closed, the next batch represents the relevant entry point for founders who missed this window. Those building stablecoin payment rails, local-currency infrastructure, or on-chain financial services for emerging markets are now explicitly in scope. Whether the NYC interview format continues beyond this batch, or expands to other verticals, remains to be seen. YC has not indicated its plans either way.