Stripe Brings Back Crypto Payments Via USDC Stablecoin
The payment company ceased accepting cryptocurrency payments in 2018 because Bitcoin was too unstable.
Stripe plans to resume crypto payments later this year, starting with Circle’s USDC stablecoin on the Solana, Ethereum, and Polygon blockchains. The fintech company stopped accepting Bitcoin in 2018 during the first major downturn in the crypto market.
Six years after discontinuing support for Bitcoin (BTC) and therefore all crypto payments, Stripe is set to reintroduce the service later this summer, though initially, it’ll only accept Circle’s USDC stablecoin.
“We’re thrilled to share that we’re reintroducing cryptocurrency as a payment option, but this time with a significantly improved experience,” Stripe co-founder and President John Collison announced during a keynote speech at the company’s Global Internet Economy conference on Thursday.
Crypto is back. @Stripe will start supporting global stablecoin payments this summer. Transactions instantly settle on-chain and automatically convert to fiat. Join the waitlist https://t.co/hws2OsU3Id and watch the demo (h/t @Solana) from Sessions. pic.twitter.com/zGKYW2FM6i
— John Collison (@collision) April 25, 2024
The payment processor has a longstanding history with cryptocurrency, having engaged with the Bitcoin ecosystem as early as 2014. However, in 2018, it ceased all these activities, stating that Bitcoin was too unstable and was more of an asset than a medium of exchange. Additionally, the company had criticized Bitcoin’s long transaction times and rising fees at the time.
In that year, Bitcoin experienced its first “crypto winter,” with the token’s value plummeting from a peak of $19,650 in December 2017 to $3,401 by the end of 2018.
The fintech giant made a move toward re-entering the market in 2019 by becoming a co-founder of Facebook’s Libra project, but it withdrew later that year, and Libra never took off. In 2022, Stripe launched an initiative to enable fiat-to-crypto payments.
“Cryptocurrency is starting to show genuine utility,” Collison stated in his keynote on Thursday. “As transaction speeds improve and costs decrease, we’re beginning to see crypto as a practical method for transactions.”
Stripe announced that payments will be offered on the Solana (SOL), Ethereum (ETH), and Polygon (MATIC) blockchains.
Bloomberg reports that the company is valued at $65 billion and is one of the largest payment providers globally, processing over $1 trillion in transactions in 2023.
Related
