Stripe Says It's Considering Bringing Back Crypto Payments
After previously ending support for Bitcoin payments, Stripe appears to be considering crypto again.
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Stripe co-founder John Collison has hinted that the company may start accepting crypto as a method of payment again after ending Bitcoin support in 2018.
Stripe Is Open to Crypto Payments
Stripe isn’t ruling out accepting cryptocurrency, according to one of its co-founders.
Speaking at the Fintech Abu Dhabi festival Tuesday, Stripe co-founder John Collison hinted that cryptocurrency payments were not out of the question for the financial services company.
When asked whether Stripe would start accepting cryptocurrencies as a payment method again, Collison said that while the firm doesn’t yet, it’s “not implausible” that it will in the future.
Collison’s comment marks a stark change in sentiment. Stripe ended support for Bitcoin payments in 2018, citing extreme volatility and a lack of efficiency in making day-to-day payments as reasons for dropping the top cryptocurrency.
With the advent of more efficient crypto payment systems, Stripe may now see cryptocurrencies as more viable for payments. “There have been a lot of developments of late with an eye to making cryptocurrencies better and, in particular, scalable and acceptable cost as a payment method,” Collison said.
He went on to add that blockchains like Solana and innovations such as Bitcoin’s Lightning Network have the potential to fulfil the role of scalable, low-cost crypto transactions.
Founded in 2009, Stripe has quickly become the largest privately-held fintech company in the U.S. The company has attracted investment from venture capital funds such as Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, both of which are now heavily invested in the crypto space.
Last month, Guillaume Poncin, Stripe’s head of engineering, announced the firm would start hiring for a new crypto team, with the mission of building the “future of Web3 payments.” Stripe now joins several other fintech companies, such as PayPal and Square, that are moving into crypto.
Disclosure: At the time of writing this feature, the author owned BTC, ETH, and several other cryptocurrencies.
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