Stripe to offer crypto payments again, starting with USDC

Stripe, a leading global technology company, has announced its re-entry into the crypto payments market.

On Thursday, the fintech giant revealed plans that will see merchants on the platform begin to accept crypto for online payments. As a start, Stripe will support payments in the USDC stablecoin.

This will mark the first time that Stripe supports cryptocurrency payments on its platform since it halted support for Bitcoin (BTC) payments in 2018. The company expects to make the re-entry this summer.

“Crypto is back. Stripe will start supporting global stablecoin payments this summer. Transactions instantly settle on-chain and automatically convert to fiat,” Stripe co-founder John Collison said via a post on X.

Per today’s news update, the company will initially support USDC payments on Ethereum, Solana and Polygon.

Stripe announces product update

Stripe is a top company in the payments space and its imminent return to the crypto scene could be a major step forward in the adoption of crypto payments.

After it ended support for BTC in 2018, Stripe hinted at its potential resumption in 2022 when it announced support for crypto payouts. Just as indicated in today’s announcement, the initial reentry also involved the USDC stablecoin, with Twitter (now X) as its first partner.

Before today’s announcement, Stripe had signaled its upcoming support for crypto transactions when it revealed numerous new feature launches.

Among these is the platform’s move to allow its customers to integrate its financial services with multiple third-party payment processors and providers.  

According to the update, customers can now use Stripe’s Payment Element with other payment service providers. The support will extend to Billing and Radar later in the year, William Gaybrick, Head of Product and Business at Stripe wrote in a blog post.