Stripe, the fintech giant, continues to slowly make its way back into the cryptocurrency market. On Thursday, the company announced that it would allow its customers to accept cryptocurrency payments, starting with just one specific currency, USDC stablecoins, initially only on Solana, Ethereum and Polygon. This is the first time Stripe has accepted crypto payments since 2018, when it dropped support for Bitcoin because it was too unstable.
In 2022, Stripe attempted its first re-entry into the crypto market when it announced withdrawals (but not payments) in USDC, with Twitter being its main customer for the service. No customer names were attached to Thursday’s messages.
Stripe co-founder and president John Collison will announce the news at the company’s Connect developer conference, taking place this week in San Francisco.
“Transactional Billings are no longer comparable to Christopher Nolan films in terms of length,” he said earlier Thursday. “And in terms of budget, the transaction costs are no longer comparable to those of Christopher Nolan films. Stripe is bringing crypto payments back – this time with stablecoins that offer a much better experience.”
On Wednesday, the company unveiled a long list of additional launches. The most significant update was that Stripe would allow its customers to integrate competing payment providers with Stripe’s other financial services tools for the first time. Thursday’s approval to expand crypto support is also part of the broader strategy to open up the walled garden.
A brief timeline of Stripe’s dance with cryptocurrencies underscores the difficult line that Stripe has walked over the years when it comes to cryptocurrencies. True to its disruptive fintech roots, the company wanted to be at the heart of the conversation about how blockchain-based technologies will impact financial services. But it risks jeopardizing its larger business and positioning itself as a stable and sensible financial powerhouse if it commits too deeply or for too long during times of instability. The company processed $1 trillion in transactions last year and continues to grow. On paper, it is currently worth $65 billion.
In 2014, Stripe launched its first foray into cryptocurrency by testing Bitcoin, the first major cryptocurrency. “Stripe’s support is critical here because of the nature of Bitcoin: it does not have all of the properties normally expected of money,” one of its early testing partners said at the time.
In 2018, the company ceased all activities, saying it was too volatile and unstable. “Over the last year or two, as block size limits have been reached, Bitcoin has evolved to be more suitable as an asset than as a medium of exchange,” the company said in its announcement. “This has resulted in Bitcoin becoming less useful for payments.”
Cue June 2019 and Facebook is getting hot when it comes to crypto. Stripe became one of the founding members of Libra.
But not for long! In October 2019, Stripe, along with others, stopped supporting Facebook’s efforts. “Stripe supports projects that aim to make online commerce more accessible to people around the world. Libra has this potential,” it said at the time. “We will closely monitor progress and remain open to future collaboration with the Libra Association.”
It took another three years for the company to try cryptocurrencies again, turning to Twitter and stablecoin (USDC) withdrawals via Twitter.
Longer term, it remains to be seen whether Stripe will stay on track with this latest launch and what the timeline of its efforts will be. However, as far as we know, it is already evaluating other stablecoins and platforms and sees an opportunity, at least for now.