Some of the world's biggest companies use Stripe's software. Now, the Irish-American FinTech's offers an option for cryptocurrency payments. Initially, Stripe supports the USDC stablecoin on Ethereum, Solana and Polygon, with more to follow.
Stripe has been experimenting with crypto payments since 2014. However, the then young startup concluded a few years later that Bitcoin was not ready for mass adoption. The fintech criticized the cryptocurrency's high fees, long wait times, and unstable value. Meanwhile, blockchain technology has evolved. So-called stablecoins, cryptocurrencies pegged to fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar, enable stable payments on new blockchains at record speeds.
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Stripe jumps back into crypto payments
In 2019, Stripe was one of the founding members of Facebook's stablecoin Libra (later Diem). The company was open to payment channels that would make online commerce more accessible to people around the world. However, due to increased regulatory pressure and controversy surrounding Libra, the fintech withdrew from the project along with other key partners. Five years later, Stripe seems to have finally found a better cryptocurrency for payments: Circle's USD Coin (USDC).
The crypto payment option will now be integrated directly into the Stripe interface. This means that customers of giants like Walmart, Amazon, Apple, Samsung, Google and others could get new payment options, the FinTech announced at a conference. Last year, the company processed more than $1 trillion in transactions. The integration could be significant for the adoption of cryptocurrencies as a means of payment
Good user experience on Solana
Stripe plans to launch USDC on the Ethereum, Polygon and Solana blockchain networks. The company praised the interaction with Solana as part of the "new crypto world" in the presentation. There is no ten-minute wait (a reference to Bitcoin's block time), and fees are less than one cent. The transaction through Solana was completed in less than a second.
The FinTech aims to provide users with a premium user experience. Currently, customers do not have automatic access to crypto payments. Businesses must sign up for a waiting list to offer the option. However, the functionality will be rolled out globally.
