After switching on support for bitcoin in 2014, Stripe ditched crypto, saying that crazy price fluctuations and higher fees rendered it as unusable as a form of payment. Speaking at the company’s Global Internet Economy conference, president John Collison revealed: "We’re excited to announce that we’re bringing back crypto as a way to accept payments, but this time with a much better experience." Merchants will be able to accept stablecoin payments from this summer, although initially this will be restricted to Circle’s USDC on the Solana, Ethereum and Polygon blockchains. Said Collinson: "Crypto is finding real utility. With transaction speeds increasing and costs coming down, 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