Trillion-Dollar Fintech Giant Stripe Steps Into Stablecoins

Stripe, the financial infrastructure giant that processed $1.4 trillion in payments volume in 2024, is stepping into the world of stablecoins with its new Stablecoin Financial Accounts.

Stablecoin Financial Accounts will allow users to send, receive, and store stablecoins within Stripe in more than 100 different countries, but notably exclude areas with major economic value, such as North America and Western Europe.

The launch comes as the stablecoin and real-world asset (RWA) market capitalizations hit new all-time highs. The stablecoin sector is currently valued at $242 billion, up 86% since the beginning of 2024. The RWA market is up 125% to $19.5 billion in the same period.

The service mostly targets users in underserved countries in Latin America, Africa, South America, Asia, and Eastern Europe.

In order to use a Stripe stablecoin account, users must fund their accounts via ACH transfer, bank wire, or a DeFi externally owned account (EOA). Funds on Stripe will be held in either Circle’s USDC, or USDB, which is a stablecoin issued by Bridge, a Stripe-owned company.

Despite the stablecoins on the platform being denominated in U.S. dollars, United States citizens will not have access to the feature.

“Stripe, like OpenAI, holds immense power; each update they release has the potential to disrupt or eliminate hundreds of startups building on stablecoin infra. The most compelling wedge now lies in targeting verticalized use cases or underserved markets that Stripe either hasn’t reached or cannot serve,” said Imran Khan from Alliance DAO.