Stripe gets friendly with crypto, again – TechCrunch

Payments giant Stripe already powers a pretty major swath of the web’s financial infrastructure, now it’s launching crypto payments support to give customers an easier path to onboard web3 users and interact with cryptocurrencies.

The company announced a suite of products today aiming to give customers access to tools and APIs that make it easier for customers to buy and store crypto tokens, cash out, trade NFTs and handle compliance workflows like Know Your Customer (KYC). Stripe’s support page notes that the company’s products will enable support for users to buy more than 135+ cryptocurrencies with fiat currencies in 180 countries.

Stripe co-founder John Collison took to Twitter Thursday to announce the new features.

Stripe has had a complicated relationship with crypto over the years, ending Bitcoin support in 2018, calling the cryptocurrency “less useful” as a payments means after initially supporting the cryptocurrency in 2014. In October, the company began posting job listings for building out a crypto team and added crypto VC Matt Huang to its board weeks later. The company’s re-entry to the space is a major threat to existing crypto payments processors that lack the company’s expansive reach.

Alongside the news, crypto exchange FTX announced that it is partnering with Stripe to improve its identity compliance features and fiat onboarding workflows for users.