Stripe Reintroduces Crypto Payments for U.S. Businesses After Six Years

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• Stripe has reintroduced crypto payments for U.S. businesses, enabling merchants to accept stablecoins via Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon.
• The move comes six years after Stripe discontinued Bitcoin payments and follows a series of Web3 partnerships to expand its crypto offerings globally.

Payment processing giant Stripe has brought back crypto payments for U.S. businesses, allowing merchants to accept payments via Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon. 

Stripe initially became the first major company to support Bitcoin payments in 2014 but discontinued the feature in 2018 due to low demand, long confirmation times, high fees, and price volatility.

After six years, U.S. businesses can now accept stablecoin payments from customers in over 150 countries, with merchants receiving payments in dollars. 

Stripe’s product lead, Jeff Weinstein, took it to X (formerly Twitter) to announce the new development on X.

“Crypto on Stripe is officially back!” he posted. “We’re rolling this out to hundreds of thousands of US businesses today.” 

Weinstein also mentioned that the debut in other countries will come gradually soon.

In April, Weinstein hinted at Stripe’s plan to reintroduce crypto payments, specifically integrating USDC stablecoin into its checkout suite. Once processed, USDC transactions settle instantly in fiat currency and run on Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon networks. 

Following PayPal’s lead, Stripe now offers a “Pay with Crypto” feature, allowing businesses to accept stablecoin payments via Stripe Checkout, Elements, or the Payment Intents API. Users have a $10,000 limit per transaction and $100,000 monthly, with a 1.5% fee per transaction.

This move is expected to boost USDC usage, increasing competition with USDT, and expand Stripe’s global presence by enabling quick, reliable transactions, even for those without a bank account or credit card.

Jeremy Allaire, CEO of USDC-issuer Circle, also shared the news on X, saying, “Official launch and support for USDC payments in Stripe products rolling out for businesses in the U.S. Very exciting to see how this unfolds!”

Stripe has been expanding its reach in the Web3 space through key partnerships and integrations. Recently, the company teamed up with Bitstamp to boost its presence in Europe, offering Web3 developers a customizable widget for seamless crypto conversion and instant transactions. Initially, this partnership supports Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, USDC, and Stellar, with plans to add more cryptocurrencies depending on market trends. However, Stripe’s UK users are excluded due to regulatory requirements.

Stripe has also partnered with other Web3 platforms like MetaMask, Blockchain.com, Magic Eden, and Nifty Gateway. This year, Stripe integrated Avalanche’s C-Chain, allowing users to fund their wallets directly with AVAX and other tokens without needing an exchange. The integration enables smoother access to decentralized applications (dApps), decentralized exchanges (DEXs), digital wallets, and NFT platforms on Avalanche.