Fintech giant Stripe jumps into crypto with a feature that lets Twitter users get paid in stablecoin

cnbc.com:

Stripe will allow businesses to pay their users via cryptocurrencies, starting with Twitter, in the latest sign of how large financial firms are warming to digital assets.

The online payment processor said Friday it will start offering merchants the ability to make payouts in crypto through the stablecoin USDC. Stablecoins are tokens that are pegged to fiat currencies to maintain a stable price. In USDC's case, as the name suggests, the cryptocurrency is backed by the U.S. dollar.

Twitter will be the first firm to integrate the new payment method. Starting Friday, the social media platform — which has been the subject of much talk lately over a potential takeover by Tesla CEO Elon Musk — will let a certain number of creators receive their earnings from its paid Ticketed Spaces and Super Follows features in USDC.

It's Stripe's first significant push into crypto since dropping support for bitcoin four years ago. The San Francisco-based start-up stopped accepting payments via bitcoin in January 2018, citing the digital coin's notoriety for volatile price swings and a lack of efficiency in making everyday transactions.

But the firm has since warmed to crypto amid hype over "Web3," a movement in tech that calls for the creation of a decentralized version of the internet based on blockchain technology. Stripe last year formed a team dedicated to exploring crypto and Web3. In November, Stripe co-founder John Collison hinted the firm may soon offer crypto support again.

«While the 'store of value' aspects of cryptocurrencies typically receive the most attention, we view the prospect of 'open-access global financial rails' as being at least equally compelling,» Stripe said in a blogpost Friday. «As a result, we've been exploring