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After dropping bitcoin in 2018, Stripe has now announced its support for all kinds of crypto businesses.
Stripe is back in the bitcoin business after a four-year hiatus. The payments company is now partnering with global cryptocurrency exchange FTX to make crypto investments “easier than ever”.
In an announcement yesterday (10 March), Stripe said it will help FTX and its affiliate FTX US to power payments for users adding funds to their FTX accounts. It will also help FTX with related tasks such as onboarding, verification of customers and risk mitigation.
It is part of Stripe’s plans to dive into the crypto business, after dropping bitcoin in 2018 because of its volatility and lengthy transaction times. The payments company founded by Ireland’s Collison brothers first dipped its toes in bitcoin transactions in 2015.
Late last year, Stripe began assembling a small team of crypto engineers to help plot its future strategy in the relatively unpredictable sector. Now, the company has announced its support for crypto payments and other services in the sector.
Co-founder John Collison tweeted yesterday that the company now supports all kinds of crypto businesses, including exchanges, on-ramps, wallets and NFT marketplaces, “not just pay-ins but pay-outs, KYC and identity verification, fraud prevention, and lots more”.
Taking crypto payments mainstream
FTX is a fast-growing global cryptocurrency exchange headquartered in the Bahamas, which allows customers to buy, sell and trade a wide variety of crypto assets. As of January, investors on the exchange were trading an average of $14bn worth of assets every day.
Now, the company founded by two Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduates wants to go mainstream and make crypto accessible to everyone.
“We want FTX to become a trusted mainstream brand,” said Tristan Yver, head of strategy at FTX. “We’ve partnered with Stripe to help us transform what could be unintuitive crypto experiences into ones that exceed consumer expectations.”
Stripe’s technology will help FTX users purchase cryptocurrencies with their debit cards and through automated clearing house transactions directly from their banks.
“The optimisations we made in our payments set-up with Stripe deliver the smooth on-ramp experience FTX’s growing customer base demands,” Yver added. “We’re able to multiply revenue by making it easier than ever for people to invest in crypto.”
As well as helping the exchange with its payments technology, Stripe Radar will help mitigate fraud risk on FTX by using machine learning to distinguish genuine customers from fraudsters, while Stripe Identity will help new crypto investors prove they are who they claim to be.
“We’re seeing greatly increased speed of KYC processing, higher rates of automated approvals, and a smoother UX for our customers,” said FTX US president Brett Harrison.
Will Gaybrick, Stripe’s chief product officer, said that FTX is one example of the many Web3 projects and crypto brands the company is working with. Others include Blockchain.com, NiftyGateway and Just Mining.
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