Stripe is returning to crypto payments in Australia six years after scrapping Bitcoin
Stripe Australia managing director Karl Durrance says advances in stablecoin have paved the way for the global fintech’s long-awaited return to the cryptocurrency market.
Global fintech Stripe will reintroduce cryptocurrency payments for Australian customers, six years after scrapping Bitcoin payments on its platform.
Speaking on the sidelines of Blackbird’s Sunrise conference in Sydney, managing director of Stripe Australia and New Zealand Karl Durrance confirmed that the financial services platform will enable customers to make crypto transactions using USDC stablecoins, initially only on Solana, Ethereum and Polygon, but did not reveal a timeline for the launch.
Having made its first cryptocurrency product launch in 2014, Stripe pulled the integration four years later due to the volatility of Bitcoin and its “suboptimal” customer experience.
The return to cryptocurrency payments, Durrance explained, is due to a “proliferation of technology advancement in stablecoin” over the past six years, which has seen transaction times and costs reduce to levels on par with regular card payments.
