MW MrBeast's finance app for kids is backed by a bank that's faced regulatory scrutiny and a fintech partner's failure
By Genna Contino
The YouTuber's new fintech venture relies on Evolve Bank & Trust, a partner bank of the now-collapsed Synapse that has dealt with numerous setbacks.
MrBeast, who acquired teen banking app Step in February, has built a business empire on top of his 470 million YouTube subscribers - but his latest financial venture is drawing scrutiny over its reliance on Evolve Bank & Trust.
On a chilly October morning last year in Memphis, Tenn., a federal agent watched as a dark-colored Mazda SUV pulled into the parking lot of Evolve Bank & Trust. The driver was Robert Hartheimer, the recently appointed chief executive of the Memphis-based bank.
Days earlier, investigators say an account linked to Hartheimer contacted an undercover FBI agent posing as a 15-year-old boy on the dating app Grindr, according to an affidavit filed in federal court. Agents observed Hartheimer arrive at the bank's headquarters and arrested him two days later on charges that he attempted to produce child pornography and sent a sexually explicit image to someone he believed was a minor, court records show. Evolve Bank fired its CEO immediately after the arrest, and Hartheimer pleaded guilty to both charges earlier this year.
Although allegations against Hartheimer were unrelated to his work at the bank, the case marked another blow for Evolve Bank & Trust, which is known for providing banking services behind the scenes for financial-technology companies including Affirm (AFRM), EarnIn and others. Hartheimer had been hired only months before his arrest to help the bank move past a series of setbacks - most notably, the collapse of Synapse Financial Technologies, a company that helped Evolve partner with fintech companies. The bank has also since faced scrutiny from regulators and lost clients such as Stripe and Mercury, which moved to work with different partner banks.
Evolve Bank & Trust declined to comment for this article. The bank previously said Hartheimer's conduct was unrelated to its operations and that customers' misplaced funds stemmed from inaccurate ledgers maintained by Synapse. The bank also agreed to a cease-and-desist order from the Federal Reserve in 2024, which it characterized as similar to actions taken against others in the industry and said would not affect its business. The order remains in effect.
Now, the biggest YouTuber in the world has tied his name to Evolve Bank. Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, acquired Step Financial in February. Step describes itself as a banking app for teens and young adults starting their financial journeys, but it's not a government-chartered bank. It depends on Evolve to provide the regulated banking services behind the app, including deposit accounts and credit-building cards, while the platform itself layers on features like cash advances and in-app rewards that pay users to play games or complete surveys.
"Now that the company has completed the transaction, they are evaluating alternative banking partners," said a person familiar with the plans of Donaldson's company, Beast Industries.
Celebrities and influencers have increasingly been backing and promoting financial-technology companies and their apps. Early investors in Step include basketball superstar Stephen Curry and influencer Charli D'Amelio. Other big names - including Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Downey Jr. and rapper Drake - have invested in fintechs in recent years, according to funding-round announcements and celebrity social-media pages. In nearly all cases, industry experts say, the companies tap into the banking system by partnering with chartered banks like Evolve, which are often smaller regional players.
Donaldson's latest move, however, is the first time a major influencer has acquired a fintech company, giving Step direct access to MrBeast's nearly half a billion subscribers around the world - many of them teens.
There is currently no age requirement to join Step, according to its website, though users under 18 need a "parent, guardian or trusted adult" to sponsor their account. The app is not currently available outside the U.S., and it's unclear how many MrBeast subscribers are American. Step did not respond to MarketWatch's requests for comment.
It remains unclear how Donaldson plans to shape the platform going forward. But Step's reliance on Evolve Bank - which has faced a string of operational and regulatory setbacks in recent years - has heightened anxieties among some consumer advocates about influencer-promoted financial apps that cater to children. The fear is that the combination of influencer marketing and complex fintech-bank partnerships can make it difficult for young users to understand where their money is held and what protections apply if something goes wrong.
Lauren Saunders, associate director and director of federal advocacy at the National Consumer Law Center, a nonprofit focused on consumer protection, said Evolve's track record, including its connection to the Synapse bankruptcy, makes her wary of the bank's role behind financial apps aimed at young users. "One of the last places in the world I would want my teen to put money is an app associated with Evolve," said Saunders.
A trademark filing tied to Beast Holdings LLC and Donaldson references potential financial services including banking, investing and cryptocurrency - suggesting the app could expand well beyond its current focus on helping young users open their first accounts.
"In the past, celebrity endorsements have often pushed people toward suboptimal financial products," said Adam Rust, director of financial services at the Consumer Federation of America, an association of nonprofit consumer organizations. "MrBeast could be fine, but the emergence of finfluencers bears watching, especially when the risks of crypto are in the offing."
From YouTube star to fintech boss
Jimmy Donaldson, who is better known as MrBeast, speaks onstage during The New York Times DealBook Summit in December.
A decade ago, a teenage Donaldson posted a video of himself to YouTube simply counting to 100,000. The stunt took 40 hours to film, but the grueling effort paid off: It became his first viral video and helped launch him toward fame, Donaldson said recently on "The Tonight Show."
Donaldson had previously spent several years posting videos of himself playing video games and estimating the net worth of other YouTubers. After the counting video took off, his channel continued to gain traction and began generating more ad revenue. He started posting videos of himself giving thousands of dollars away to people experiencing homelessness or to random video-game streamers online. This kind of content is what Donaldson has become known for: convoluted challenges and grandiose philanthropic efforts.
Recent posts to his YouTube channel include videos titled "30 Celebrities Fight For $1,000,000" and "I Built 100 Houses And Gave Them Away!" - but his brand has evolved far beyond his YouTube persona. His company, Beast Industries, has launched a philanthropic nonprofit, a snack brand and a reality TV game show.
Now 27 years old, Donaldson has 470 million subscribers on YouTube and millions more on other platforms, many of them teenagers and young adults. That audience has made Donaldson a coveted partner for brands hoping to reach younger consumers. In the past, he has partnered with financial apps such as Current, Coinbase (COIN) and MoneyLion on giveaways and promotions through his videos and social-media posts.
But those deals were largely marketing campaigns. With Step, Donaldson is moving beyond promotion and into ownership. The financial venture is personal for Donaldson, who told "The Diary of a CEO" podcast last year that his family struggled with money and filed for bankruptcy protection during the 2008 housing crisis.
"Nobody taught me about investing, building credit or managing money when I was growing up," Donaldson said in a post on X after the Step acquisition was announced. "That's exactly why we're joining forces with Step! I want to give millions of young people the financial foundation I never had."
The acquisition of Step comes as Donaldson is transforming his business interests to look much more like a hard-charging corporation. In the spring of 2024, Beast Industries hired Jeff Housenbold, a former managing partner at SoftBank (JP:9984) $(SFTBY)$ and the former CEO of Shutterfly, as chief operating officer to oversee the transition from a content-focused studio to a multifaceted global enterprise. Under Housenbold, who began serving as Beast Industries' CEO in September 2024, the organization has swelled to more than 500 employees, including Step, according to its LinkedIn page.
One of Step's main offerings is the Step Visa (V) Card, a secured spending card that reports activity to credit bureaus to help users build a credit history. Step also advertises savings accounts with yields of around 3% and tools meant to help younger users manage their money, including a financial-literacy program.
Step, which says it has 7 million users, also layers other features on top of those core banking services. Its EarlyPay tool, which allows users to access incoming direct deposits before payday, falls under a category of products that consumer advocates have compared to payday loans.
The "Beastification" of Step is expected to include a sharper focus on the financial-literacy tools within the app. Donaldson told YouTuber Jon Youshaei he anticipates filming supplemental content "educating people on investing and showing them what is a Roth IRA," for example.
Why fintechs rely on banks like Evolve
Step's partnership with Evolve reflects a broader pattern across the fintech and financial-app industry. While apps like Step handle the user experience, a chartered and regulated bank must hold deposits and issue the cards behind the scenes.
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March 17, 2026 08:58 ET (12:58 GMT)
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