Online Payments Firm Stripe Is Rethinking a Return to Crypto

San Francisco, US-based online payments firm Stripe says it is not “implausible” to begin accepting cryptocurrency as a payment method in the future. Previously, the company had begun accepting Bitcoin payments but discontinued the practice in 2018. Presently, when the overall crypto market cap is around a whopping $3 trillion (roughly Rs. 2,22,79,296 crore), it does not come as a surprise that Stripe is open to entering the space again. For now, Stripe co-founder John Collison has kept the doors to crypto open.

“There have been a lot of developments of late with an eye to making cryptocurrencies better and, in particular, scalable, and acceptable cost as a payment method,” CNBC quoted Collison as saying.

The company recently established a team dedicated to research on the crypto space as well as to explore the “web3” concept – which refers to the decentralised future of Internet as we know it.

Earlier in November, the company roped in Matt Huang, co-founder of crypto-focussed venture capital firm Paradigm, to join its board of directors.

Collision however, did express his reservations around the crypto space. The use of cryptocurrencies as a “speculative investment” is something that is “not that relevant to” the working of Stripe.

Stripe, founded in 2009, has emerged to be the largest privately-held fintech company in the US with a market valuation of $95 billion (roughly Rs. 7,07,598 crore).

Meanwhile, the crypto market has significantly grown on a global level.

While El Salvador legalised Bitcoin as a legal tender in September, places like the New York City and Miami town have adopted their own native city-coins based on the crypto technology.