Payment giant Stripe has now joined the likes of PayPal in its pursuit of crypto payments.
After six years of avoiding Bitcoin settlements, global payments giant Stripe pivoted to USD Coin USDC $1.00 24h volatility: 0.0% Market cap: $77.24 B Vol. 24h: $15.69 B . On Wednesday, the firm reinstated crypto support by introducing a payment alternative involving the stablecoin. As a result of this pivot, Stripe customers in over 150 countries can now utilize USDC for payment.
Stripe Facilitates USDC to Fiat Payment
Stripe’s product lead, Jeff Weinstein, took the initiative to announce the new development on X.
“Crypto on Stripe is officially back!” he posted. “We’re rolling this out to hundreds of thousands of US businesses today.” The debut in other countries will come gradually soon.
Weinstein first hinted at Stripe’s plan to reinstate crypto in April. He highlighted that the firm would integrate USDC stablecoin payments into the servicer’s checkout suite. Once such USDC transactions are registered, they will immediately settle in fiat. All USDC transactions are designed to go through Ethereum, Solana, and the Polygon blockchain networks.
Stripe is following PayPal’s lead in offering crypto payment alternatives. PayPal has the “Checkout With Crypto” feature that helps users make purchases from merchants worldwide. With the new “Pay with Crypto” feature on Stripe, businesses are now allowed to integrate stablecoin payments through Stripe Checkout, Elements, or the Payment Intents API.
Each user has a payment limit of $10,000 per transaction and $100,000 monthly. According to Stripe’s product page, a 1.5% transaction fee is payable for every transaction.
This integration will likely bring more traction to USDC and trigger tougher competition for market share with USDT USDT $1.00 24h volatility: 0.0% Market cap: $186.19 B Vol. 24h: $110.84 B . Similarly, it is a means for Stripe to expand its global reach. The move upholds the concept of financial inclusion, providing convenient, swift, and reliable transactions to customers.
The service will play out even without a bank account or credit card.
Stripe and Web3 Partnerships and Integrations
Two months ago, the financial infrastructure platform announced a strategic partnership with Bitstamp to strengthen its European presence further. The alliance offered Web3 developers an opportunity to embed the customizable widget in their products to enable seamless crypto conversion and instant transaction settlement.
The duo started with selected digital assets, including Bitcoin BTC $88 007 24h volatility: 0.8% Market cap: $1.76 T Vol. 24h: $65.06 B , Ethereum ETH $2 960 24h volatility: 0.9% Market cap: $357.41 B Vol. 24h: $38.19 B , Solana SOL $126.1 24h volatility: 0.7% Market cap: $70.91 B Vol. 24h: $7.85 B , USDC, and Stellar Lumen XLM $0.22 24h volatility: 1.3% Market cap: $7.05 B Vol. 24h: $199.43 M . Plans to expand to other cryptocurrencies in the future are dependent on market dynamics. In terms of geographical allowance, Stripe has exempted its UK users in compliance with regulations.
The payment firm’s partnership extends to several other Web3 platforms, including MetaMask, Blockchain.com, Magic Eden, and Nifty Gateway. This year, Stripe also integrated Avalanche, expanding its offering to support Avalanche C-Chain.
By leveraging Stripe’s onramp, users can directly fund their wallets with AVAX and other supported tokens without a crypto exchange. The move furnished users with access to streamlined crypto products and Decentralized Applications (dApps).
This includes Decentralized Exchanges (DEXs), digital wallets, and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) platforms running on Avalanche.
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