Stripe has announced that it will begin supporting global stablecoin payments. Transactions will instantly settle on-chain and automatically convert to fiat currency.
Stripe enabled Bitcoin payments 10 years ago but ceased the service in 2018.
CEO Patrick Collison described the Bitcoin payment experience at that time as “pretty terrible,” and Stripe cited a lack of demand as a reason for discontinuing the service.
Although Stripe was an early supporter of Bitcoin payments, the firm cited technical challenges, including lengthy transaction confirmation times, high failure rates, and exorbitant transaction fees, as reasons for halting the service.
The issues led to a decrease in demand from both Stripe clients and retail customers.
“Crypto is back”
The upcoming offering will allow merchants to accept stablecoins for online transactions using the Stripe platform.
Collison highlighted the technical improvements in the crypto space, highlighting increased transaction speeds, reduced fees, and the growing stability of stablecoins.
“Crypto is back,” he wrote on X, sharing a video of a demo. “Stripe will start supporting global stablecoin payments this summer. Transactions instantly settle on-chain and automatically convert to fiat.”
During Stripe’s annual conference, Collison demonstrated the new feature by showcasing a payment using USDC (USD Coin), a popular stablecoin on the Ethereum, Solana and Polygon blockchains.
With bitcoin reaching a record high in value last month as investor interest resurges, Stripe wants to slowly, but carefully, dip its toes back in.
This comes amid a general push to woo more new customers as the company announced it will split its payments service from other services to make the platform more modular.
The move means that customers will be able to use some of Stripe’s services without needing to be clients of its main payments platform.
Stripe described their previous approach as an “all-or-nothing” proposition that cut off a chunk of potential users from onboarding to its platform, such as large enterprises that are unable to breach existing long-term contracts.
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