This week, Stripe, a payments giant that powers a pretty significant portion of the web’s financial infrastructure, announced it is adding support for crypto payments so that its customers have an easier time on-boarding web3 users and interacting with cryptocurrencies.
With a suite of products announced today, clients will be able to buy and store crypto tokens, receive a cashout, trade NFTs, and manage compliance workflows such as Know Your Customer (KYC). On Stripe’s support page, it is noted that users will be able to purchase 135 and more cryptocurrency assets with fiat currencies in 180 countries using the company’s products.
According to Stripe’s co-founder John Collison, the company shared a tweet on Monday, March 11 to announce that they are launching a crypto business suite in conjunction with FTX, FTX US, Blockchain.com, Nifty Gateway, and Just Mining.
Stripe now supports crypto businesses: exchanges, on-ramps, wallets, and NFT marketplaces. Not just pay-ins but payouts, KYC and identity verification, fraud prevention, and lots more. https://t.co/3X173SkdPd
— John Collison (@collision) March 10, 2022
Tristan Yver, FTX’s head of strategy, highlighted that the deal would allow the exchange to appeal to a broader mainstream audience by increasing the ease with which users could purchase crypto assets;
The optimizations we made in our payments setup with Stripe deliver the smooth on-ramp experience FTX’s growing customer base demands. We’re able to multiply revenue by making it easier than ever for people to invest in crypto.
Tristan Yver, Head of strategy – FTX
In addition, Stripe launched a free open drop of NFT collectibles dubbed “Cube Thingies” through Nifty Gateway. Each of the NFTs is worth between $242.42 and $424.24 and all of the proceeds will be donated to nonprofit healthcare technology organization Watsi.
After initially supporting Bitcoin in 2014, Stripe ended support in 2018, calling it “less useful” as a means of payment. In October, the company posted job listings for a crypto team and got crypto VC Matt Huang on board in the following weeks. With the company’s reentry into the space, it poses a major threat to existing crypto payments processors that lack its expansive reach.
Crypto exchange FTX also announced that it is partnering with Stripe in order to improve its identity compliance features and the onboarding process for fiat users simultaneously with this news.
