Deniz 
Stripe will resume accepting bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptos later this summer, despite dropping them six years ago. Nevertheless, at the beginning, they will only back Circle’s USDC stablecoin.
“Stripe is pleased to announce that we’re reintroducing crypto as a way to accept payments, but this time with a much better user experience,” stated John Collison, co-founder and president of Stripe, during his keynote at the company’s Global Internet Economy conference on Thursday.
Having started its first maneuver in the Bitcoin environment back in 2014, this payment processor has deep ties with the cryptocurrency community. In 2018, after carrying out these undertakings for four years, they stopped them all, arguing that bitcoin was too volatile as a medium of exchange and would be an asset. Its price hikes and lengthy processing time have also been faulted before.
Having reached the price of $19,650 in December 2017, Bitcoin went through the first of the “crypto winters” that year, decreasing to $3,401 by the end of the same year.
Seeking to get into the market again, the finance giant had the largest share in Facebook’s Libra project the following year. Nevertheless, the company pulled out later that year, and the project didn’t see the light of day. To ensure an easy way of converting fiat currency into cryptocurrency, Stripe commenced a project in 2022.
“Crypto is finding real utility,” Collison said in his Thursday address. Cryptocurrencies have started to become relevant as mediums of exchange, thanks to lower costs and faster transaction speeds.
According to Stripe, the following blockchains will support payments: Solana (SOL), Ethereum (ETH), and Polygon (MATIC). Based on Bloomberg, the company is now valued at $65 billion and is one of the world’s largest payment providers, with over $1 trillion in transactions in 2023.