MrBeast has gone from giving away money to asking teenagers to trust him with theirs. The YouTube star with 469 million followers recently acquired Step, a financial services app with 7 million teen users.
The acquisition means his company Beast Industries now operates a platform offering spending, savings, and investment accounts for teenagers, with plans to expand into cryptocurrency trading.
MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, says he wants to provide financial education he lacked growing up. His CEO, Jeffrey Housenbold, expressed confidence in their ability to grow the business, boasting to the New York Times that they “know how to gamify things” and “make things viral” when targeting Gen Z and Gen Alpha.
But critics worry about conflicts of interest. Beast Industries received $200 million from crypto platform Bitmine Immersion Technologies, and recently, one of MrBeast’s employees was fined and suspended from Kalshi for allegedly making near-perfect bets using nonpublic information related to MrBeast’s show.
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MrBeast has gone from giving away money to asking teenagers to trust him with theirs. The YouTube star with 469 million followers recently acquired Step, a financial services app with 7 million teen users.
The acquisition means his company Beast Industries now operates a platform offering spending, savings, and investment accounts for teenagers, with plans to expand into cryptocurrency trading.
MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, says he wants to provide financial education he lacked growing up. His CEO, Jeffrey Housenbold, expressed confidence in their ability to grow the business, boasting to the New York Times that they “know how to gamify things” and “make things viral” when targeting Gen Z and Gen Alpha.
But critics worry about conflicts of interest. Beast Industries received $200 million from crypto platform Bitmine Immersion Technologies, and recently, one of MrBeast’s employees was fined and suspended from Kalshi for allegedly making near-perfect bets using nonpublic information related to MrBeast’s show.
Sign up for the Entrepreneur Daily newsletter to get the news and resources you need to know today to help you run your business better. Get it in your inbox.
