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Stripe Reintroduces Support for Crypto, Allows Payments Via USDC Stablecoin

Twitter icon  •  Published 1 неделю назад  •  Hassan Maishera

Fintech giant Stripe has announced its support for cryptocurrency payments once again, starting with Circle’s USDC stablecoin.

TL;DR

  • Fintech app Stripe now supports cryptocurrency payments via USDC.

  • This comes six years after the company discontinued support for Bitcoin.

Stripe Supports Crypto Payments Again

Fintech giant Stripe announced a few hours ago that it is now supporting cryptocurrency payments once again. This comes six years after the company dropped support for bitcoin (BTC) and, thus, crypto payments altogether.

According to Stripe, it is bringing back the service later this year and will initially support only Circle’s USDC stablecoin. Stripe co-founder and President John Collison revealed this during a keynote address at the company’s Global Internet Economy conference on Thursday. He said

“We’re excited to announce that we’re bringing back crypto as a way to accept payments, but this time with a much better experience. Crypto is finding real utility. With transaction speeds increasing and costs coming down, we’re seeing crypto finally making sense as a means of exchange.”

This isn’t the first time Stripe has ventured into the crypto space. In 2014, the fintech giant added support for Bitcoin. However, it discontinued those efforts four years later, citing Bitcoin’s volatility as the primary reason behind its decision.

Stripe revealed at the time that Bitcoin would function as an asset rather than a medium of exchange. The company also cited the lengthy transaction times and growing fees at the time as another reason why it discontinued the support.

The company doesn’t have to deal with volatility this time around as it supports only USDC for now. USDC is a stablecoin whose value is pegged to the US Dollar. 

Stripe looked to re-enter the crypto market in 2019 by becoming a co-founder of Facebook’s Libra project. However, it stepped away from the project and Libra never fully launched. 

Stripe revealed that payments of USDC will be available on the Solana (SOL), Ethereum (ETH) and Polygon (MATIC) blockchains.

 

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Author

Hassan Maishera

Hassan is a Nigeria-based financial content creator that has invested in many different blockchain projects, including Bitcoin, Ether, Stellar Lumens, Cardano, VeChain and Solana. He currently works as a financial markets and cryptocurrency writer and has contributed to a large number of the leading FX, stock and cryptocurrency blogs in the world.