Overview

Mercury is a US financial-technology company that provides modern business banking for startups, tech companies, and online businesses. Importantly, Mercury is not itself a bank — it is a fintech that partners with FDIC-insured banks (such as Choice Financial Group and Column N.A.) to hold customer deposits, while delivering a far better software experience than a traditional bank.

Mercury became popular in the startup ecosystem — including many crypto and web3 companies — because it offered fast online onboarding, clean software, free USD wires and ACH, virtual and physical cards, and treasury features, at a time when legacy banks were slow and unfriendly to tech founders. Through deposit-sweep networks, Mercury can extend FDIC coverage well beyond the standard $250,000 per bank by spreading balances across partner institutions.

It is best understood as crypto-adjacent rather than a crypto bank: Mercury provides the US-dollar banking backbone that crypto-native companies use for payroll, vendor payments, and treasury — not native crypto trading or custody. Note that, like many fintechs, Mercury's appetite for certain crypto-related businesses has shifted over time, so prospective customers should confirm current eligibility for their use case.

History

Mercury was founded in 2017 by Immad Akhund, Max Tappenden, and Jason Zhang in San Francisco, with the goal of building the banking experience that startups actually wanted. It grew rapidly among venture-backed companies and the broader startup community.

The 2023 US regional-banking turmoil — including the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank — drove a wave of startups toward Mercury, and the company emphasised its multi-bank deposit-sweep model as a way to extend FDIC protection. Mercury has continued to expand beyond core banking into corporate cards, bill pay, treasury, and financial-operations products for growing companies.

Key Features