Stripe recommits to crypto payments

On Thursday, Stripe CEO John Collison announced that Stripe is re-entering the crypto space. FTX US said it will use Stripe to automate KYC processes, approvals, and crypto purchases from debit cards and ACH transactions.

Why should we care?
Stripe’s about-face on crypto could further normalize the crypto space through more intuitive onboarding processes and connections to traditional finance systems. “Crypto companies have been poorly served by other payments providers, with many privately complaining of poor authorization rates and reliability,” a Stripe spokesperson said. “We are bringing world-leading payments infrastructure to help crypto companies offer better on-ramps for new and existing users.” Along with growing regulatory shifts, discordances between users and the crypto platforms serving them—from experiencing wonky ID-verification processes to falling victim to fraud—have heightened public scrutiny of crypto. Until a few days ago, skeptics could look to Stripe to validate their skepticism, given that Stripe supported bitcoin payments between 2014 and 2018. Collison declared after the company’s crypto withdrawal that he was “very skeptical of anyone who’s adamant that crypto’s gonna work.” Stripe has often led the fintech space in strategy; we should expect other fintechs to follow in Stripe’s footsteps, hoping to bridge the gap between blockchain-based systems and traditional financial landscapes.