According to TechCrunch, Stripe, a leading fintech company, is making a comeback in the cryptocurrency market. The company announced on Thursday that it would begin accepting cryptocurrency payments, starting with USDC stablecoins. Initially, these payments will only be accepted on Solana, Ethereum, and Polygon. This marks Stripe's first acceptance of crypto payments since 2018 when it discontinued Bitcoin support due to its instability.
In 2022, Stripe made its initial reentry into the cryptocurrency market by announcing payouts in USDC, with Twitter being its notable customer for the service. However, no customer names have been attached to Thursday's announcement. The news is expected to be officially announced by Stripe co-founder and President John Collison at the company's Connect developer conference in San Francisco.
Stripe's reentry into the crypto market is part of a broader strategy to expand its services. On Wednesday, the company announced a series of launches, including allowing customers to integrate competing payment providers with Stripe's financial services tools for the first time.
Stripe's history with cryptocurrency has been a delicate balance. While the company has shown interest in blockchain-based technologies and their impact on financial services, it has also been cautious not to jeopardize its position as a stable financial powerhouse. In 2014, Stripe began testing Bitcoin, the first major cryptocurrency. However, by 2018, it withdrew from these activities, citing Bitcoin's volatility and instability.
In June 2019, Stripe became a founding member of Libra, Facebook's cryptocurrency project, but withdrew support by October 2019. It took three more years for Stripe to reengage with cryptocurrency, this time with Twitter and USDC payouts. It remains to be seen how long Stripe will continue with this latest launch and what its future efforts will look like. However, it is understood that the company is already considering other stablecoins and platforms.