Stripe Resumes Crypto Payments, Users Can Make and Receive USDC Transactions on Ethereum and Solana

Stripe users will soon be able to make and receive USDC transactions through Ethereum and Solana, as the payments giant announced its return to crypto payments starting this summer. This marks a significant shift for the company, which had previously discontinued its Bitcoin services in 2018 due to concerns about the cryptocurrency’s volatility and technological limitations.

According to Jeff Weinstein, product lead at Stripe, the decision to reintroduce crypto payments comes after nearly ten years of absence from the space. The company initially ventured into crypto in 2014 but withdrew in 2018, stating that Bitcoin was better suited as an asset rather than a means of exchange.

Stripe’s new crypto policy will prioritize Circle’s stablecoin, USDC, over Bitcoin. Users will have the option to conduct transactions in USDC through the Ethereum or Solana blockchains, and they can connect various wallets such as MetaMask, Phantom, Coinbase Wallet, and Rainbow to their Stripe accounts.

John Collison, co-founder and president of Stripe, highlighted the improvements in transaction settlements and costs, comparing them to the length and budget of Christopher Nolan films. The company’s shift towards stablecoins is evident in its previous support for Meta’s stablecoin project, Libra, and its payouts program with X (formerly Twitter) in 2022.

With a valuation of $50 billion following a $7 billion funding round in 2023, Stripe has been contemplating a potential public offering. However, the company stated in March that it was not in a rush to go public. For more updates on Stripe and the crypto space, readers can reach out to Tom Carreras, markets correspondent at DL News, at tcarreras@dlnews.com.