In 2025, you may have lost track of where crypto is in its hype cycle. But innovative things are definitely happening in fintech and on blockchain. From building firewalls and AI agents to combating deepfakes and bot armies, these companies are using cutting-edge technologies to handle some of the internet’s most important jobs.
Check Point Software Technologies
To build a firewall for the blockchain
In the 1990s, Check Point invented the first Internet firewall. Today, with blockchain technology (Web3) out of its infancy, it needs its own firewall – and Check Point is once again a pioneer. Blockchain’s lack of central authority and so-called immutability are a boon for Internet bad actors, but Check Point detects suspicious logic and risky payloads and can break the kill chain before threats become victims. The firewall’s machine learning-based engines predicted the February Bybit hack, which stole $1.5 billion in Ethereum tokens, six months before it happened.
Memcyco
To thwart fraudsters in real time
Generative AI has made phishing attacks more powerful by enhancing spoofing. Memcyco fights back with a three-pronged defense system that withstands the heat of attack – a step forward from other cybersecurity systems that only detect fraud after the fact. Memcyco’s “nano-defenders” – lightweight agents hidden within a client’s website – can detect whether consumers are being redirected to cloned websites intended for phishing. If a consumer is then tricked into logging in, the system discreetly exchanges their credentials with decoy data, so phishers don’t see the real passwords. Founded in 2021 by Israeli tech veterans, the company claims to have helped a top 10 North American bank reduce incidents by 65%, saving nearly $18 million.
Swear
To thwart deepfakes with digital fingerprints
In the age of AI, deepfakes can be weaponized to influence elections, disrupt stock markets, or start wars. Swear targets such manipulation with “digital DNA mapping,” which cryptographically imprints every image, pixel, and sound clip of a photo or video as it is captured, creating a permanent record of its original structure on the blockchain. If this content is transformed into disinformation by a bad actor, any third party – such as a journalist, a judge or the public – could discover the counterfeit by comparing it to the original DNA. Swearing is most promising where integrity is paramount: think body cameras, drones, and voting machines. Since the technology launched in 2024, it has won awards from SXSW, CES and the Security Industry Association.
Tools for humanity
For offering “proof of humanness” in the age of robots
Have you ever heard of the theory of the death of the Internet? He warns of a future where online forums are just robots talking to other robots. In 2019, Sam Altman founded Tools for Humanity to prevent his other company, OpenAI, from realizing such a dystopia. Funded by its cryptocurrency, Worldcoin, Tools for Humanity touts privacy-preserving “proof of humanity” technology. Deployed this year in the United States at 7,500 gas stations, bodegas and shopping centers, its Orb device scans your iris and spits out a 12,800-digit binary number: your “global identifier.” The company’s World app, which was once just a digital wallet for crypto, now allows developers to leverage World ID to verify that their platforms are indeed populated with humans. Tools for Humanity has 28 million World App users, $244 million from investors like a16z and a Visa partnership.
Zipper
To create hyper-specific AI agents
Zip works with companies and helps clients like AMD, Coinbase, Reddit, and Sephora make multi-billion dollar purchasing decisions. In 2023, the company introduced a general-purpose chatbot, but then concluded that it wasn’t very useful. So the company asked itself: what if, instead of creating a single jack-of-all-trades AI, we trained many AIs to become masters of a task? By removing its general model for parts, Zip created 50 hyper-specific AIs. One analyzes how pricing policies affect supplier prices, another studies market rates, and yet another reports regulatory exposure. Rolled out this year, the new class of AI specialists has received praise from early adopters of OpenAI and Wiz.
The companies and individuals behind these technologies are among the winners of Fast Company’s Next Big Things in Tech Awards for 2025. Learn more about the winners in all categories and the methodology behind the selection process.
