Stripe Aims to Bring Stablecoin Cards to 100 Countries by Year-End

Stripe, the global payments giant, is rapidly expanding its stablecoin card services, aiming to cover over 100 countries by the end of the year. Henri Stern, CEO of crypto wallet infrastructure firm Privy (acquired by Stripe last year), now leads Stripe's stablecoins and crypto initiatives. Current clients include crypto exchange Kraken, fintech Ramp, and payments app Morse.

The move comes as stablecoin card transactions surge, with $1.2 billion spent last month, triple the amount from a year ago. While still a small fraction of the global card payments market, the growth signals stablecoins' shift from crypto trading to everyday purchases. Stripe's strategy focuses on integrating stablecoins into its existing infrastructure, leveraging its experience issuing over 400 million cards and processing hundreds of billions in card volume since 2018.

Stripe acquired Bridge, a stablecoin infrastructure company, for $1.1 billion in 2024, combining it with its card-issuing business. This allows clients like Ramp to expand into new markets using stablecoins instead of rebuilding banking connections. Kraken, for instance, is exploring spending directly from accounts holding digital assets. Stripe has also partnered with Paradigm to develop Tempo, a blockchain designed for payments, and invested in Open Standard, the company behind Open USD, a stablecoin rivaling Circle's USDC and Tether's USDT.

Stern emphasized Stripe's commitment to an open, modular approach, ensuring compatibility with various stablecoins and blockchains. The goal is to make stablecoins an optional payment method within existing products, not a separate crypto stack. Stripe is also exploring tokenized deposits, DeFi use cases, and accepting more digital assets as payments, though stablecoins remain the primary focus.