Stripe To Bring Back Crypto Payments With USDC On Solana

https://coingape.com/stripe-expands-crypto-presence-with-avalanche-integration/Financial service provider Stripe has big plans for the upcoming summer and this includes enabling crypto payments With USDC stablecoin on the Solana blockchain. 

The Sojourn Away From Crypto

Stripe co-founder John Collison stated that the platform will now support global stablecoin payment. He also said that the crypto transactions will “immediately” settle to fiat.

For a start, only Circle-issued USDC will be used for the crypto payments across Solana, Ethereum and Polygon blockchains. During his keynote address, Collison mentioned that Stripe is offering its users a much better experience with the relaunch of crypto settlements.

For a background, Stripe suspended crypto payments on its platform as far back as 2018 due to high volatility exhibited by Bitcoin (BTC) at the time. The company also saw the flagship cryptocurrency as an asset rather than as a medium of exchange. At the time, Bitcoin’s long transaction and growing fees formed concerns for Stripe.

This was the saw time that Bitcoin met with its first major winter, causing the price to drop from $19,650 in December 2017 to $3,401 at the end of 2018. Following its exit from the digital asset ecosystem, Stripe tried to make a comeback the year after with Facebook’s Libra project. Libra hardly saw the break of dawn, hence, Stripe’s comeback was truncated. 

In 2022, the payment firm unveiled a project that facilitates fiat-to-crypto payments.

Stripe Identifies The Prospect and Chose USDC

Choosing to revive its involvement in crypto-based commerce suggests that Stripe has sensed prospects in the approach. It is likely a strategy for the firm to meet up with the evolving needs of its customers 

This time around, Stripe believes that “Crypto is finding real utility,” Collison said. He acknowledged the ongoing increase in crypto transaction speed as well as the drop in cost, stating that “we’re seeing crypto finally making sense as a means of exchange.”

Crypto is back. @Stripe will start supporting global stablecoin payments this summer. Transactions instantly settle on-chain and automatically convert to fiat. Join the waitlist https://t.co/hws2OsU3Id and watch the demo (h/t @Solana) from Sessions. pic.twitter.com/zGKYW2FM6i

— John Collison (@collision) April 25, 2024

The choice of USDC indicates that the United States dollar-pegged stablecoin is gaining global recognition. Little wonder that Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson described the altcoin as an early Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). 

Also, Circle recently introduced a novel smart contract functionality that facilitates the transfer of shares from BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) to Circle in exchange for USDC.

The Stripe USDC-Solana move is poised to go live later this summer.