Just been digging into what Wall Street's been hyping lately, and there are two fintech plays that analysts think could absolutely soar over the next year or so. We're talking 65% and 195% upside potential here.

First up is Block. Yeah, the former Square. This company's had a wild ride - at its peak it was up like 1,500%, then got absolutely crushed and is now down about 80% from highs. Wild swings, right? The thing is, it's trading dirt cheap now - 1.7x sales, 19x forward earnings. But here's the catch: the market stopped believing in them for a reason. They got bloated, lost focus, and profitability was a mess.

That said, something shifted recently. They just announced they're cutting workforce from 10,000 down to 6,000 - that's a massive restructuring. Q4 numbers showed sales up, margins improving, and they're adding AI to their systems to get more efficient. So there's actually a turnaround narrative forming. The risk though? They're still dependent on Bitcoin, which has been volatile, and there's legit concern that AI could make their software solutions redundant. Plus, they've been trying to fix things for years without much success.

Then there's Pagaya. This one's the real AI story. They've built this sophisticated platform that assesses creditworthiness and sells loan bundles to institutional investors. Revenue jumped 20% year-over-year last quarter, and they actually beat earnings projections pretty hard - $34 million net income versus $25 million expected.

What's wild is the valuation. Trading at 0.8x sales and 3.8x forward P/E - that's absurdly cheap. They just locked down $800 million in new funding for loans, which is huge for scaling without hiccups. They've got partnerships with heavy hitters like U.S. Bancorp and Visa, with over 150 funding backers total.

Now, the reason the stock got hammered after earnings is their single-family rental business is struggling. That segment's dragging on numbers. But here's the thing - if you strip out the SFR drag, their core lending network volume actually grew 34% year-over-year. The 2026 guidance was disappointing though, only projecting 15% revenue growth, which spooked people.

All 10 analysts covering Pagaya are calling it a buy, with price targets 80% higher than where it's trading now. That's pretty unanimous.

So yeah, both companies are seeing Wall Street soar with optimism on these potential solutions to their respective problems. Block's the riskier turnaround play, Pagaya's the cheaper growth opportunity. Interesting times in fintech right now.