Online Payments Firm Stripe Is Rethinking a Return to Crypto

The company based in San Francisco, US recently established a team dedicated to research on the crypto space.

By Radhika Parashar | Updated: 25 November 2021 19:20 IST

Online Payments Firm Stripe Is Rethinking a Return to Crypto

The overall crypto market cap is around $3 trillion (roughly Rs. 2,22,79,296 crore) presently

Highlights

The firm recently established a team dedicated to research on the crypto
Stripe had begun accepting Bitcoin payments previously, but discontinued
The global crypto market is gaining steam

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.

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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.

Interested in cryptocurrency? We discuss all things crypto with WazirX CEO Nischal Shetty and WeekendInvesting founder Alok Jain on Orbital, the Gadgets 360 podcast. Orbital is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music and wherever you get your podcasts.

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Further reading: Stripe, Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin

Radhika Parashar

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Radhika Parashar is a senior correspondent for Gadgets 360. She has been reporting on tech and telecom for the last three years now and will be focussing on writing about all things crypto. Besides this, she is a major sitcom nerd and often replies in Chandler Bing and Michael Scott references. For tips or queries you could reach out to her at RadhikaP@ndtv.com. More