OLB Group: how an e-commerce business became a payments company with a Bitcoin spin-off plan
The OLB Group has spent more than three decades changing what it sells to small merchants. Its roots go back to OLB.com, a New York business incorporated in 1993, long before cloud point-of-sale systems, mobile wallets and payment facilitators became common parts of retail technology.
The modern company is mainly a merchant-payments business built through acquisitions. It owns payment-processing operations, a gateway, commerce software and crowdfunding technology, while a separate Bitcoin-mining subsidiary has been earmarked for a planned spin-off.
By 2026, that portfolio was being simplified again. Transaction and processing fees still generated most of OLB’s revenue, Bitcoin mining remained small, and management was trying to separate DMint while pushing more software and AI-assisted merchant tools into the fintech business.
The corporate lineage begins with OLB.com in 1993
OLB.com, short for On-line Business, was incorporated in New York in 1993. The OLB Group, Inc. was later incorporated in Delaware on 18 November 2004 for the purpose of merging with OLB.com and changing the company’s state of incorporation.
The Delaware company inherited OLB.com’s assets and intellectual property. The early business went through several models, including online commerce and subscription services, before the group eventually concentrated more heavily on payment and merchant technology.
By the early 2010s, OLB was offering cloud-based commerce software under the ShopFast name. The platform was designed to help smaller retailers manage online and physical-store transactions from the same system.
That omnichannel idea became the bridge between the older e-commerce business and the payments company OLB later built.
The 2018 eVance acquisition changed the company
The biggest structural shift came in April 2018 when OLB acquired substantially all of the assets of Excel Corporation and several subsidiaries, including eVance Processing.
OLB paid US$12.5 million through a foreclosure sale for the acquired assets. Those assets became the foundation of its eVance business and moved merchant payment processing to the centre of the group.
eVance operates as an independent sales organisation and payment-services provider. It helps merchants accept card transactions and works with acquiring banks and processors behind the scenes.
The acquisition changed OLB’s economics because payment processing generates transaction-based revenue every time participating merchants use the system. It also made OLB much more dependent on the performance of the merchant portfolio acquired through eVance.
OmniSoft and CrowdPay broadened the software portfolio
A month after the eVance transaction, OLB brought OmniSoft and CrowdPay into the group through share-exchange agreements.
OmniSoft added commerce and business-management software. Its tools were designed to let merchants handle sales across physical stores and online channels while connecting checkout, loyalty and other operational functions.
CrowdPay focused on capital-raising technology. The platform was designed for businesses and intermediaries running regulated crowdfunding and private-offering campaigns.
Together, the acquisitions gave OLB a broader proposition than payment processing alone. Management wanted merchants to use the company for transaction processing, commerce software and related financial technology from one group.
SecurePay became the payments gateway linking the pieces
OLB’s SecurePay gateway became an important technical layer inside the group.
A payment gateway routes transaction information between the merchant and the financial infrastructure needed to authorise a payment. OLB integrated SecurePay with its OmniSoft and ShopFast products so merchants could use the software together rather than operate separate systems.
The company also introduced merchant and independent-sales-organisation onboarding tools intended to automate parts of the approval and account-management process.
This was part of a wider move toward the payment-facilitator model, where a technology provider can onboard sub-merchants under its own sponsored payment structure instead of acting only as a referral channel.
Bitcoin mining became a separate bet in 2021
OLB moved outside its traditional merchant-services business in 2021 when it formed DMint to mine Bitcoin.
The subsidiary acquired specialised mining computers and eventually operated equipment from a site in Selmer, Tennessee. By the end of 2025, DMint owned 1,000 mining computers, with 400 online, and had mined a cumulative 60.01 Bitcoin according to OLB’s annual filing.
Bitcoin mining introduced a very different risk profile from payments. Revenue depends on cryptocurrency prices, network difficulty, power costs and hardware efficiency rather than merchant transaction volume.
That difference eventually led management to pursue a separation of the mining operation rather than keep it permanently inside the fintech group.
OLB began planning to spin DMint out
By 2026, OLB was working toward a spin-off that would make DMint a separate publicly traded company.
Under the announced plan, existing OLB shareholders would receive shares in DMint while OLB continued as a payments and merchant-services company.
The separation had not been completed as of September 2026. OLB’s filings state that it depends on the effectiveness of DMint’s registration statement and approval for a Nasdaq listing, and the company explicitly says there is no guarantee the transaction will occur.
That means DMint remains part of OLB’s consolidated business until the required steps are completed.
2025 revenue fell sharply
OLB reported total revenue of US$8.7 million for 2025, down 32.4% from US$12.8 million in 2024.
Transaction and processing fees remained by far the largest source, contributing approximately US$7.9 million. Monthly recurring subscriptions generated about US$302,000, Bitcoin mining contributed roughly US$210,000 and digital-product revenue was about US$199,000.
The decline came from several parts of the business. Processing revenue fell, subscription revenue weakened and digital-product sales dropped significantly as the company changed vendors around its Moola Cloud operation.
The figures show how dependent OLB remained on payment processing despite years of adding other products. eVance continued to generate substantially all of the group’s revenue.
Liquidity was a major issue entering 2026
OLB ended 2025 with only about US$16,000 in cash and more than US$5 million in accounts payable and accrued expenses.
The company had relied on equity and debt financing to support operations while continuing to report negative operating cash flow.
This financial position made cost reduction and capital raising important parts of the 2026 story. It also reinforced the strategic logic of separating DMint, which required capital for mining equipment and infrastructure outside OLB’s core payment operations.
Revenue continued falling in the first half of 2026
For the six months ended 30 June 2026, OLB reported revenue of US$2.94 million, down 36% from US$4.59 million a year earlier.
Transaction and processing fees fell to US$2.69 million from US$4.15 million. Mining revenue was US$121,461, while subscription and digital-product revenue also declined.
Second-quarter revenue alone was US$1.28 million, compared with US$2.27 million in the same quarter of 2025.
The company did narrow its second-quarter net loss to about US$1.05 million from US$2.12 million a year earlier, helped by lower operating costs and other items.
Cash improved to approximately US$1.28 million at the end of June after financing activity, giving the company more liquidity than it had at the end of 2025.
AI is being added to merchant software rather than replacing payments
OLB has recently begun describing more of its merchant software around artificial intelligence.
The company markets applications under names including iStores AI and ShopFast AI and has said it is shifting internal software development toward AI-assisted tools.
The practical opportunity is to automate tasks around commerce and transaction processing rather than create a completely separate AI business. Merchants may use software to manage inventory, customer interactions, checkout and reporting while payments continue to flow through the same financial infrastructure.
OLB’s filings also make clear that its existing payment operation remains the financial centre of the company. AI features may broaden the product suite, but they have not yet replaced processing fees as the main source of revenue.
The company is trying to become simpler again
OLB’s history has moved in the opposite direction of many start-ups. It began with online commerce, assembled payments and merchant software through acquisitions, added crowdfunding tools and then moved into Bitcoin mining.
By 2026, management was trying to separate the most unrelated piece. If the DMint spin-off is completed, OLB would again be easier to describe: a small fintech company centred on merchant acquiring, payment processing and commerce software.
The challenge is that the core fintech business is currently shrinking. Transaction revenue fell materially in 2025 and again during the first half of 2026, while the group continued to report losses.
That makes the next phase less about adding another business line and more about restoring growth in the merchant portfolio already responsible for most of OLB’s revenue. New AI-assisted products may help, but the company’s financial recovery still depends primarily on processing more transactions, retaining merchants and controlling operating costs.
