Financial services company Stripe has big plans for the upcoming summer, and this includes enabling crypto payments with the USDC stablecoin on the Solana blockchain. Stripe co-founder John Collison stated that the platform will now support global payments with stablecoins. He also said that the crypto transactions will be converted to fiat “immediately.”
Initially, only the USDC issued by Circle will be used for crypto payments on the Solana (SOL), Ethereum and Polygon blockchains. During his keynote address, Collison mentioned that Stripe is offering its users a much better experience with the reintroduction of crypto payments.
As background, Stripe has already suspended crypto payments on its platform until 2018 due to the high volatility that Bitcoin (BTC) exhibited at the time. The company also viewed its flagship cryptocurrency as an asset rather than a medium of exchange. At the time, Bitcoin’s long transaction times and growing fees were concerns for Stripe.
This was the first time Bitcoin faced its first major winter, which saw its price fall from $19,650 in December 2017 to $3,401 at the end of 2018. After its departure from the digital asset ecosystem, Stripe attempted to come back the following year with Facebook’s Libra project. Libra barely saw the light of day, cutting short Stripe’s comeback. In 2022, the payments company unveiled a project that facilitates fiat-to-crypto payments.
The choice to revive its involvement in crypto-based trading suggests that Stripe has seen opportunity in the approach. It is likely a strategy for the company to meet the evolving needs of its customers.
This time, Stripe believes “Crypto finds real utility,” Collison said. He acknowledged the continued increase in the speed of crypto transactions and the decline in costs, stating that “we are finally seeing crypto making sense as a medium of exchange.”
The choice of USDC indicates that the US dollar-pegged stablecoin is gaining global recognition. It’s no wonder that Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson described the altcoin as an early Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC).
Additionally, Circle recently introduced a new smart contract functionality that facilitates the transfer of shares of BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) to Circle in exchange for USDC. The move from Stripe to USDC-Solana is scheduled to go live later this summer.
Source: https://cryptobenelux.com/2024/04/26/stripe-gaat-usdc-betalingen-terugbrengen-naar-solana/
