Payments company Stripe supports cryptocurrency businesses, including digital asset trading platforms, online wallets, and (non-fungible token) NFT marketplaces. The new service will be provided in partnership with FTX and FTX US (the US-facing crypto exchange).
The update was shared by Stripe co-founder John Collison via Twitter (on March 10, 2022) along with a release. There’s also a link to a webpage that provides details on the firm’s use-cases in the Web 3.0 and Metaverse ecosystem.
For crypto exchanges, Stripe allows platforms to handle payments in major fiat currencies seamlessly, along with payouts made in fiat (45+ different countries supported). For online wallets, it offers an API that enables clients to track and easily manage Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), as well as Bored Apes on widgets.
For NFT marketplaces, there’s the Stripe Identity feature to reliably verify the genuineness of ID docs from 33 nations, so that purchasers and potential sellers have been properly vetted.
Tristan Yver, Head of Strategy at FTX, said they want to make FTX a trusted, mainstream brand.
“We’ve partnered with Stripe to help us transform what could be unintuitive crypto experiences into ones that exceed consumer expectations.”
FTX said that it built its new payments service with Stripe in just days. FTX will use Stripe to offer onboarding and identity verification for users joining the exchange, and to power payments for users adding funds to their FTX account.
These types of features may help with addressing serious issues in the crypto space, like the risk of fraudulent activities.
As the blockchain space goes mainstream, bad actors are also looking to increasingly go after unsuspecting consumers. Chainalysis data reveals that cryptocurrency cybercriminals netted an all-time record $14 billion last year. These were identified as losses from scams and theft which also surged 79% YoY.
As reported by Fast Company, Stripe customers include Blockchain.com, Nifty Gateway, Just Mining, and FTX. But Stripe appears to be a bit behind its rivals Block (previously Square) as well as PayPal in expanding into the crypto space.
As covered in November 2021, Stripe had not been taking cryptocurrencies as payment, but they were (like almost all other Fintechs) monitoring the space and said they could change that policy in the future.
Speaking at the Fintech Abu Dhabi Festival (as reported in November 2021), John Collison noted that his company and cryptocurrencies were founded within months of each other, with crypto coming first. He said he is excited about recent performance improvements in the space and how designers are producing more cost-effective scalability. Also catching Collison’s eye are blockchains like Solana, which are adding possibilities while improving performance
Collison said:
“I think all of that work is interesting because we are interested in bringing more people into the global economy at Stripe, we are interested in letting a business… sell all around the world.”