Macauley Peterson

Stripe and Paradigm are plotting to launch a new platform that some have likened to a “Libra that lived.”&nbsp;



The chain, Tempo, aims to bring stablecoin-powered payments onchain at a scale Stripe is uniquely positioned to deliver.



The announcement came with heavyweight design partners, such as Visa, Deutsche Bank, OpenAI, Shopify, and the sketching of an architecture: not an Ethereum <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/layer-2">layer-2</a>, but a new L1, optimized for predictable fees, sub-second finality, gas-in-stables, and 100,000+ TPS.



The <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/ethereum">Ethereum</a> community was mostly nonplussed.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Why Tempo is an L1 — and why should we care</h2>



Paradigm’s Matt Huang <a href="https://x.com/matthuang/status/1964123449045242041">laid out the case</a>. “Tempo will be a permissionless chain. On day 1, anyone will be able to deploy a token, and anyone will be able to transact on the chain…We’ll start with a permissioned validator set to get going and decentralize further from there.”



Huang framed the decision to go L1, not L2, as both technical and political.



“Building a network for global payments will require bringing together thousands of partners that may not trust us, or Stripe, or anyone as a platform. We think a decentralized validator set — for the chain itself — is a necessary requirement for those partners, and to ensure that the chain is unquestionably neutral in the long run.”



On its face, that sounds a lot like Ethereum, and the new chain will be built on Reth and therefore EVM-compatible. But Huang also cited UX features L2s don’t currently offer natively — like multi-token gas support via an enshrined AMM, payments-specific lanes, sub-second finality, and with opt-in privacy features.



Paradigm has been a major Ethereum proponent and develops the Reth execution client, boosting the network&#8217;s client diversity. That detail drew particular attention from Ethereum core devs, since just days earlier, a critical bug in Reth caused synced nodes to stall. Paradigm CTO Georgios Konstantopoulos <a href="https://x.com/gakonst/status/1963633379284587017">called it</a> a “brutal moment, but ultimately one we learn from and get stronger.”&nbsp;



On Ethereum, the bug was annoying but not catastrophic, because Reth is just one of many. For Tempo, launching with Reth as its primary execution engine, an episode like that could plausibly halt the chain.



Critics quickly zeroed in on what they saw as Tempo’s contradictions. “Where is the Ethereum alignment?” <a href="https://x.com/preston_vanloon/status/1963689840051896383">wrote</a> Ethereum core dev Preston Van Loon.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">My take on Tempo as an VC chain / L1: &#8211; No client diversity (major risk) &#8211; Anyone can just make a token and use that to pay gas? lol &#8211; Should be an L2, not L1. Where is the justification for this? Where is the Ethereum alignment? &#8211; Smells like another consortium chain, oh well&#8230;&mdash; prestonvanloon.eth (@preston_vanloon) <a href="https://twitter.com/preston_vanloon/status/1963689840051896383?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 4, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Paradigm has already tried the L2 route with <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/blast">Blast</a>, sometimes thought of as “Paradigm’s L2” due to its lead role in <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/blast-layer2-ethereum-yield">Blast’s $20M raise</a>, so it’s possible the VC firm could have ruled out building on Ethereum <a href="https://x.com/0x9212ce55/status/1963942915786383683">to avoid a conflict</a>.



(A Paradigm spokesperson declined to comment specifically for this story.)



At stake is more than just branding. Tempo’s design decisions reignited long-running questions about whether L2s can deliver the UX and institutional trust required for real-world payments. But they also raised alarms about what happens when corporate players reinvent blockchain infrastructure outside the neutral, credibly decentralized systems Ethereum has tried to protect.



It’s bound to be a years-long battle, but as Yuval Kogler <a href="https://x.com/yugacohler/status/1963865768291877275">put it</a>: “The relative success of the various blockchains will be a direct referendum on the market value of <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/decentralization">decentralization</a>.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">The corp chains critique</h2>



To many longtime crypto builders, Tempo echoes the dreams — and mistakes — of Facebook’s Libra. Christian Catalini, one of Libra’s original architects, <a href="https://x.com/ccatalini/status/1964027796864585747">questioned</a> whether any corporate player could deliver on the promise of neutrality.



“Would a sane competitor bet its future on Stripe&#8217;s promise not to eventually favor its own products?”



Catalini, co-founder alongside David Marcus of <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/lightspark-bitcoin-lightning-payments">Lightspark</a>, a payments-infrastructure company building on Bitcoin’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/lightning-network">Lightning Network</a>, went <a href="https://x.com/ccatalini/status/1964028283844251736">further</a>: “As long as there is a single throat to choke — or a committee of them — you can’t truly rewire the system. Worse, any network with an architect is living on borrowed time.”



Omid Malekan, a crypto author and early educator, was <a href="https://x.com/malekanoms/status/1963931256111944079">equally blunt</a>: “I can&#8217;t believe I still have to say this in the year 2025, but let me explain once again why permissioned chains like Tempo (or Canton or <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-l1-impact-ethereum">ARC</a> or any other corporate chain) are likely to fail.” His critique centers on liability: if validators are known and permissioned, they can be sued, censored, or compelled to roll back the chain.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Question: if every large corporation is going to operate their own chain with their own on-ramps, stablecoins, etc., how is it better than the current system?&mdash; Toghrul Maharramov 🇺🇦 (@toghrulmaharram) <a href="https://twitter.com/toghrulmaharram/status/1964449544986603973?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 6, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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Still, not everyone saw Tempo as a retreat into safe corporatism. Nick van Eck <a href="https://x.com/Nick_van_Eck/status/1964140110666191294">argued</a> Stripe is unlikely to be merely experimenting, but launching a full-stack payments competitor to Visa.&nbsp;



“Tempo is a clear shot across the bow [announcing] that they are trying to build the next generation Visa network,” said van Eck, calling Huang’s ode to neutrality tantamount to “gaslighting everyone”: “They are openly declaring war against everyone building in stablecoins, the payment networks, and the banks.”&nbsp;



In van Eck’s view, Stripe is moving fast because it has to — before incumbents cut them off. Agora is one of those stablecoins seeking to grow distribution.



“The opportunity up for grabs here is enormous,” van Eck said. “Probably $1T+ in enterprise value to be won or lost if we look a decade down the road.”



From the market-structure angle, there’s a strategic read on stablecoin rails themselves, according to Laurent Benayoun, CEO of Acheron Trading.



“Having control over the infrastructure powering payments and RWAs will increase the revenue and influence of stablecoin issuers,” Benayoun told Blockworks. “That said, two things will ultimately matter: how private issuers will tackle creating public chains, and as a consequence which will receive the highest degree of adoption post consolidation of that niche.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">A fresh look at fast finality</h2>



Tempo may be shipping fast finality, but Ethereum researchers made it clear they’re working on it too, and faster than critics might think.



Barnabé Monnot, researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, <a href="https://x.com/barnabemonnot/status/1964252013459386496">posted</a> a breakdown of ongoing work to shorten slot times, expose fast confirmation rules in clients, and pursue more aggressive finality gadgets.



ZKsync’s Alex Gluchowski <a href="https://x.com/gluk64/status/1964241553364296038">responding</a> to Huang’s Tempo preview, noted “the only serious technical argument in this post is fast L1 finality — something we as L2s can neither fix nor mitigate.” That’s the sort of dependency chains like Circle’s Arc also seek to avoid.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">The only serious technical argument in this post is fast L1 finality—something we as L2s can neither fix nor mitigate. We fully depend on the L1 progress rate here. I&#39;d told <a href="https://twitter.com/ethereumfndn?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ethereumfndn</a> leadership earlier in summer that&#39;s the ONLY thing we care about on the ETH roadmap. <a href="https://t.co/LWb3jNBhKg">https://t.co/LWb3jNBhKg</a>&mdash; ALEX | ZKsync ∎ (@gluk64) <a href="https://twitter.com/gluk64/status/1964241553364296038?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 6, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Vitalik Buterin <a href="https://x.com/VitalikButerin/status/1964407261801173312">joined</a> the thread to support Monnot’s work: “These are good ideas! Most of them are delta-neutral (in the sense of the δ network latency assumption), which is even better.” In distributed-systems terms, δ (delta) is the maximum time messages take to propagate; calling proposals “delta-neutral” signals they don’t require faster networks or tighter validator clustering to be safe.



The real trick, Buterin caveated, is whether Ethereum can maintain geographic and economic decentralization while cutting time to finality.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">“Revolution” or “failed coup”?</h2>



The emergence of Tempo is less a rejection of Ethereum than a test of its pace. Stripe isn’t launching Tempo to provoke the Ethereum community, though it may have that consequence.



Ethereum still has the network effects, and decentralization strengths, like <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-upgrade-testnet-hiccup">client diversity</a>, and <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/ethereum-inclusion-lists-scrutiny">credible neutrality</a>. Tempo will have distribution, product polish, and a measure of institutional trust. The challenge for Ethereum is to meet the moment technically — fast confirmations, better L2 UX, cleaner <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/interoperability">interop</a> — before Tempo or any other major fintech player captures the payments layer outright.



As Catalini <a href="https://x.com/ccatalini/status/1964027763616358450">warned</a>, if the world settles on corporate chains like Tempo, “the crypto experiment was not a revolution, but a failed coup.”



But as stablecoin adoption grows, Tempo may well serve as a catalyst for Ethereum rather than competition.



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Ethereum

Upping Tempo: Stripe’s planned L1 challenges Ethereum to move faster

Blockworks

Fireblocks, the $8 billion crypto infrastructure firm, has launched a new payments network designed for stablecoins.



<a href="https://fortune.com/crypto/2025/09/04/fireblocks-network-for-payments-stablecoins-michael-shaulov/?utm_source=organic_social&amp;utm_medium=blog_newsletter&amp;utm_campaign=20250904_global_content_fireblocks_networks_for_payments_fortune_blog&amp;utm_content=linkedin">Announced</a> on Thursday, the Fireblocks Network for Payments brings together more than 40 participants, including Circle, stablecoin startup Bridge — recently <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/stripe-bridge-acquisition-stablecoin-infrastructure">acquired</a> by Stripe — along with firms such as Zerohash and Yellow Card.



The initiative aims to reduce engineering costs and operational risks for companies building stablecoin products or transferring digital dollars across borders, according to CEO Michael Shaulov.



In July 2025, Fireblocks processed a record $212 billion in stablecoin volume, underscoring its role in the asset class. The firm already provides custody and transfer services for banks, including BNY Mellon and fintechs like Revolut, but its existing infrastructure was built around crypto trading rather than streamlined stablecoin payments.



Shaulov said the new network expands on models like the Circle Payments Network, but supports multiple stablecoins rather than only Circle’s USDC. The launch comes amid rising institutional interest: a Fireblocks report back in May <a href="https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/fireblocks-report-stablecoins-move-from-experiment-to-production-with-revenue-growth-as-top-driver-302456793.html">found</a> 90% of firms are already using or exploring stablecoin payment programs, with cross-border settlement cited as the top driver. Blockworks Research data <a href="http://blockworks.co/analytics">highlights</a> the scale of stablecoin flows Fireblocks is targeting. On Ethereum, where $164 billion in stablecoins circulate, daily transfer volumes regularly exceed $60 billion. USDC alone accounts for nearly $47 billion in supply, while USDT still dominates at over $81 billion.



<figure class="wp-block-image size-large"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" width="1600" height="889" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-35.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-107177" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-35.png?w=1600 1600w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-35.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-35.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-35.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-35.png?w=1536 1536w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-35.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-35.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-35.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/image-35.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 1600px) 100vw, 1600px" /></figure>



Solana stablecoin supply and transfers | Source: Blockworks Research



Meanwhile, Solana has emerged as a high-throughput stablecoin rail, processing around $11 billion in daily transfers across tokens like USDC, USDT and PYUSD.



The network handles roughly 3 billion monthly transactions (excluding validator votes), far outpacing Ethereum in raw activity. Stablecoin volume spikes have helped to drive Solana DEX trading to nearly $300 billion in monthly spot volume, cementing its role as a low-cost complement to Ethereum’s liquidity-heavy ecosystem.



This is a developing story.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jeffrey@blockworks.co" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeffrey Albus</a>&nbsp;before publication.



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Circle

Fireblocks launches payments network for stablecoins

Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang announced on Thursday that his firm and Stripe are incubating Tempo, a payments-focused blockchain designed to streamline stablecoin use in real-world financial flows.



Tempo has <a href="https://x.com/matthuang/status/1963633379284587017">entered</a> private testnet with support from initial design partners including Anthropic, Coupang, Deutsche Bank, DoorDash, Lead Bank, Mercury, Nubank, OpenAI, Revolut, Shopify, Standard Chartered, Visa, and more. The project represents Stripe’s most direct step into blockchain infrastructure, extending its payments business toward native onchain settlement.



Tempo is engineered to handle more than 100,000 transactions per second with sub-second finality, according to project materials. Its payments-first architecture enables transaction fees and gas to be paid in any stablecoin through an enshrined automated market maker (AMM).



Additional features include dedicated lanes for payments, support for memos and access lists, and opt-in privacy settings. Built on Reth, an Ethereum execution client, the chain maintains compatibility with existing Ethereum smart contracts and tooling.



Huang said Tempo is intended to support diverse financial applications such as payroll, remittances, global payouts, and embedded accounts. The protocol will follow a principle of “stablecoin neutrality,” allowing any issuer to deploy tokens for settlement. Validators will initially be curated but are expected to transition toward a permissionless model.



This is a developing story.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



This article was generated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by editor&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jeffrey@blockworks.co" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Jeffrey Albus</a>&nbsp;before publication.



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OpenAI

Stripe and Paradigm incubate Tempo blockchain for stablecoin payments

Donovan Choy

This is a segment from the Lightspeed newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed">subscribe</a>.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



We learned this week that Stripe and Circle are planning to launch their <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/stripe-circle-l1s-solana">own L1 chains</a>.



Ethereum community members were quick to <a href="https://x.com/ryanberckmans/status/1955289483345113471">question</a> why corporations shouldn&#8217;t launch L2s instead.



Ethan Buchman has a simple <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-l1-impact-ethereum">explanation</a>: Vertical integration is profitable.



Christian Catalini of Lightspark <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/christiancatalini/2025/08/11/stripe-is-building-a-blockchain-can-openness-survive-branded-rails/">echoes</a> this view in Forbes:



“&#8230; stablecoin issuers have strong incentives either to commoditize the rails — by issuing on multiple networks and positioning themselves at the center of interoperability across them — or to nudge most activity to a network they control. Either strategy gives them a shot at becoming massive global fintech leaders and capturing most of the value the technology creates.”



Circle/Stripe is doing simply what’s best for them. But that means these new chains aren’t contributing to Ethereum data availability fees, which does not elevate the bags of ETH token holders.



The team behind Phantom wallet faced similar “chain alignment” questions upon announcing its integration of Hyperliquid perps.



This as opposed to a perps DEX built on Solana like Drift or Jupiter.



Reasoning from a viewpoint of chain tribalism is pretty standard fare in this industry. But from an outsider’s perspective, it’s probably a very weird mental model to make decisions from. Builders should simply do whatever’s best for business.



Brandon Millman, CEO of Phantom, puts it plainly on this week’s Lightspeed <a href="https://youtu.be/ogdTMLHMRy8">podcast</a>:&nbsp;



“In the world of trading and perps, how do we get the best prices for users? If you just look at the objective numbers, price, execution, liquidity…all of that is an order of magnitude greater on Hyperliquid. And so by completely ignoring that, I think we would&#8217;ve been doing a pretty big disservice to users.”



To put it another way, Hyperliquid processed $371 billion in volumes over the last 30 days. Solana&#8217;s two largest perp DEXs, Jupiter and Drift, processed a collective $52 billion over the same time.



That’s roughly 7.1x more addressable volume, which should lead to a pretty straightforward business decision.



From my time speaking to application developers in the industry, most pursue a multichain strategy simply because it’s best for business.



Aave for instance, is deployed on something like 15 chains. This multichain strategy is proving unprofitable on several L2s like Soneium, Celo, Linea, ZKsync and Scroll. So they won’t do it <a href="https://x.com/DefiIgnas/status/1951238740526993611/photo/1">anymore</a>. Another simple straightforward decision!



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">We reached an L2 saturation point: Aave deployed on 16 chains, but the new deployments are operating at a loss (Soneium, Celo, Linea, zkSync, Scroll). As a result, Aave is unlikely to deploy on Bob BTC L2, even though it passed the temp check vote. Now, a proposal on the Curve… <a href="https://t.co/jl6FKICbOk">pic.twitter.com/jl6FKICbOk</a>&mdash; Ignas | DeFi (@DefiIgnas) <a href="https://twitter.com/DefiIgnas/status/1951238740526993611?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 1, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



It would be nice for businesses to show cultural loyalty or be altruistic.



But as the economist-philosopher Adam Smith taught us, it’s not from the benevolence of the butcher, baker or brewer that we expect our dinner from, but from a regard to their own self-interest.



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Corporations don’t care about your blockchain

Kate Irwin

This is a segment from The Drop newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/thedrop" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">subscribe</a>.



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Wallet provider Privy is under the hood of a lot of your favorite crypto platforms, like OpenSea, Pumpfun, Jupiter, Hyperliquid and even <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/digg-news-reboot-relaunch-crypto-wallet-kevin-rose">Digg 2.0</a>.



In June, payments giant Stripe <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/stripe-acquires-privy-wallet">acquired</a> Privy, which says it’ll remain a separate product but that now they’ll be able to move faster and ship more.



Privy’s chief executive and co-founder Stern has a background in finance and engineering, most recently as a research scientist at Protocol Labs before starting the crypto wallet firm.



This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.



Kate Irwin: I&#8217;d love to get your thoughts on consumer crypto.



Henri Stern: The way we look at the customers [is] we serve is across three main angles. So there&#8217;s fintech, which is to say payments, treasury management, remittances, buying and holding dollars. There is DeFi and trading. And then there&#8217;s consumer engagement.&nbsp;



And I&#8217;m increasingly starting to think that those are the wrong categories, to some extent, because the definition of “consumer” has kind of changed. If you harken back to 2021, or even 2018, we used to say there&#8217;s “consumer crypto” and “fintech crypto.” And historically, it&#8217;s also been that the “consumer” in crypto was a developer, for the most part, because there was no broader adoption. And so, like, even through DeFi summer, the average consumer was a hyper, like, technically literate person.&nbsp;



And I think now we&#8217;re seeing the emergence of a new “consumer” category, which is “consumer finance.”&nbsp;



…Broadly, I wonder if we&#8217;re misusing the word “consumer” from now on. And I don&#8217;t know what that does, right? But it used to be that more or less you had “finance,” and that meant B2B, and you had gaming, DeFi, and NFTs, collectibles, creator economy, and that meant “consumer.” And I think actually the two are kind of blending, in that now there is, like, “consumer finance,” which is this new, maybe third, category. But I think for us, it&#8217;s a major part of our work.&nbsp;



We started serving companies like OpenSea, and Proof of Play, which does a huge amount of gaming. Today we serve Farcaster, so it&#8217;s a huge part of what we do. And I think, frankly, it&#8217;s kind of at the frontier of how you work through better UX. Because if a game can deal with the wallet experience without having transactions pop up in your face every other second, you&#8217;ve probably built something that&#8217;s good enough for any other type of consumer platform.



KI: Do you think the future of crypto involves each crypto user juggling many wallets?&nbsp;



Stern: Users do not have a single identity. You don&#8217;t have a single identity. I don&#8217;t have a single identity. The way I am at a crypto conference is different than the way I am with friends. It’s different from the way I am with family, and likewise, online, the way I use my bank, my grocery store, whatever else, is completely different based on the situation.



As more and more things come onchain, you will need to be able to tune your experience differently, your wallets differently, your risk settings differently.



Having a wallet for applications is problematic. So I guess my take is, broadly, [that] we&#8217;ll end up having some version of profiles, where you have wallets that you sort of cluster around, and then you reuse around types of applications that operate in similar ways.&nbsp;



And then the second thing, I think, is we&#8217;ll just get much better bridging between apps. I think it is inevitable.



Let&#8217;s take it as a premise that users will have multiple wallets. And then from there, the question becomes, how do we actually make it super easy for them to move assets across them very, very easily?



I think that&#8217;s a completely unsolved problem, and one where users will need a platform where they can broadly manage their identity and their assets across these. And my take is that I think of it a lot like Apple System Preferences.&nbsp;



I think when you use your iPhone, you come onto Uber, and Uber asks you, “Do you want this app to have access to your location?” You can say “yes,” “no,” [or] “just this once.” And you don&#8217;t think about it again. But if you ever wanted to manage that setting, you could in your System Preferences.



We’ll end up having a like, meta-level control center where they can manage their multiple identities. That&#8217;s something we&#8217;re thinking about a lot.



KI: What do you think about the rise of crypto “superapps,” where players like Coinbase are combining crypto wallets with social media and other features? It’s kind of uncharted territory, but I also wonder if it’s going to catch on.



HS: I guess it&#8217;s uncharted territory in the West because of how things came about, but WeChat is doing great, and has done this. And Line has also done this. So I think the thing is, there’s such path dependency on technological adoption that I don’t know that [just] because it has existed, it will exist again.



But we’re seeing it with apps like Farcaster. Like is Farcaster a wallet? They do have a wallet, we’re very happy, that’s powered by Privy, but they have mini apps. And so I spend an unholy amount of time playing Farcade, which is a gaming platform within Farcaster, and spending assets I have in my wallet to do so.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



I think let a thousand flowers bloom and we’ll see.



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<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire">Empire</a>: Crypto news and analysis to start your day.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forward-guidance">Forward Guidance</a>: The intersection of crypto, macro and policy.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/thedrop">The Drop</a>: Apps, games, memes and more.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed">Lightspeed</a>: All things Solana.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/supply-shock">Supply Shock</a>: Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin.</li>
</ul>

Stripe

3 big questions with Privy CEO Henri Stern

Katherine Ross

Stripe is acquiring Privy, a crypto wallet provider.&nbsp;



Privy says that it will remain an “independent product” but will operate under Stripe’s umbrella. It will “move faster, ship more, and serve you even better, so you can stay focused on your users.”



The amount was not immediately disclosed. Stripe didn’t immediately return a request for comment.&nbsp;



Bloomberg first <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-11/payment-company-stripe-to-acquire-crypto-wallet-provider-privy?taid=68499be47922900001efdf80&amp;utm_campaign=trueanthem&amp;utm_content=business&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=twitter&amp;embedded-checkout=true">reported</a> the news.



“From our earliest conversations with Stripe, they impressed us with their craft, ambition, and willingness to imagine new worlds,” Privy said in a post. “Like us, they believe in bringing crypto and fiat closer together to change how value moves through the Internet.”



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">1/ Today, we&#39;re proud to announce that Stripe is acquiring Privy. We couldn’t be more excited. Privy will continue as an independent product – but now we’ll move faster, ship more, and serve you even better, so you can stay focused on your users. <a href="https://t.co/8CHJqhqYy7">pic.twitter.com/8CHJqhqYy7</a>&mdash; Privy (@privy_io) <a href="https://twitter.com/privy_io/status/1932816495719166167?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 11, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



The acquisition is just the latest example of Stripe doubling down on crypto.&nbsp;



It bought stablecoin firm Bridge for $1.1 billion in one of the largest crypto acquisitions in history last year. It also reintegrated crypto payments in the US last fall.



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/stripe-bridge-acquisition-stablecoin-infrastructure">https://blockworks.co/news/stripe-bridge-acquisition-stablecoin-infrastructure</a>



Back in May, Stripe announced that it was rolling out Stablecoin Financial Accounts, which will allow businesses to hold their balances in stablecoins and gives them the option to receive funds on both crypto and fiat rails. 



“Because stablecoins make it dramatically faster and cheaper to move money internationally, many of the world’s largest companies are turning to Stripe to help assemble their stablecoin strategies. But a challenge remains: making it possible to spend stablecoins at businesses that only accept fiat currencies,” Stripe said in a <a href="https://stripe.com/en-hk/newsroom/news/sessions-2025">press release</a> at the time.



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<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed">Lightspeed</a>: All things Solana.</li>



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M&amp;A

Stripe acquires crypto wallet provider Privy

This is a segment from the Empire newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/empire" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">subscribe</a>.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



If spending $1.1 billion wasn’t enough of a sign that Stripe is serious about stablecoins and gaining market share there, its newest announcement shows that it is serious.



Stripe unveiled Stablecoin Financial Accounts, which — much like the name suggests — is a money-management feature. Businesses in over 100 countries can now use these “stablecoin-powered” accounts.&nbsp;



Basically, a business can not only hold their balance in stablecoins, but they can also receive funds on both crypto and fiat rails.&nbsp;



Oh, whoop, big deal.&nbsp;



Let me explain: Empire subscribers like yourself are very in the weeds when it comes to crypto. Many of you are crypto-native and likely interact with crypto daily.&nbsp;



We’re all aware that stablecoins have been the big winner for crypto, and the extent of their usefulness hasn’t even been realized yet by non-crypto folks. Announcements like this are the exact sort of moves you want to see when introducing stablecoins to businesses, entrepreneurs and executives who’ve probably heard about stablecoins through headlines, but don’t understand the usefulness.&nbsp;



“Because stablecoins make it dramatically faster and cheaper to move money internationally, many of the world’s largest companies are turning to Stripe to help assemble their stablecoin strategies. But a challenge remains: making it possible to spend stablecoins at businesses that only accept fiat currencies,” Stripe said in a <a href="https://stripe.com/en-hk/newsroom/news/sessions-2025">press release</a>.



Announcements like Stripe’s have a chance to open the eyes of non-crypto folks to show them how stablecoin payments can make a difference when it comes to speed and cost.&nbsp;



If we pair this with the one they made last week (<a href="https://stripe.com/en-hk/newsroom/news/bridge-partners-with-visa">partnering</a> with Visa on a card-issuing product that allows folks to spend stablecoin balances as fiat), we really are cooking.&nbsp;



Normalizing stablecoins — and showing off how effective they are — is the first step to mass adoption, if we’re simplifying it.&nbsp;



Patrick Collison, CEO, noted that stablecoins are a “gale-force” tailwind alongside AI, and are “dramatically reshaping the economic landscape around us.”



“Our job is to pull these technologies forward so businesses on Stripe can benefit from them right away,” he added.



Last year, businesses using Stripe processed roughly $1.4 trillion in total payment volume. Yes, with a T.&nbsp;



Right now, these accounts will support USDC and USDB (Bridge’s stablecoin), but it plans to add more in the future.&nbsp;



This is how crypto wins.



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<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed">Lightspeed</a>: All things Solana.</li>



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Empire Newsletter

What Stripe’s new Stablecoin Financial Accounts mean for adoption

The biggest deal this week wasn’t a venture capital raise. Instead, it was the announcement that Stripe is buying stablecoin platform Bridge for $1.1 billion.&nbsp;



There’s been a lot written about the deal and what it means, and we wrote about it from numerous angles here at Blockworks focusing on the Solana impact, what it means for crypto and whether or not this could open the door for more merger and acquisition activity.&nbsp;



Stripe CEO Patrick Collison, in a <a href="https://x.com/patrickc/status/1848393059559502177">post</a> earlier this week, said, “<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/stablecoins">Stablecoins</a> are room-temperature superconductors for financial services. Thanks to stablecoins, businesses around the world will benefit from significant speed, coverage and cost improvements in the coming years. <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/stripe">Stripe</a> is going to build the world’s best stablecoin infrastructure.”



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/stripe-bridge-acquisition-stablecoin-infrastructure">Stripe looks to build ‘world’s best stablecoin infrastructure’ after Bridge buy&nbsp;</a>



Empire co-host Santiago Santos <a href="https://blockworks.co/podcast/empire/4164753c-9261-11ef-b1b7-270f254cfcb9">praised</a> Collison’s words, calling the post “one of the best tweets I’ve ever seen.”



“There&#8217;s this whole universe and part of crypto that people outside of crypto don&#8217;t appreciate unless you&#8217;re using it. But very few people are using it because they&#8217;re distracted in this noise that crypto is just a casino,” Santos said, talking about stablecoins and their use cases.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/lightspeed-newsletter-bridge-solana-vc">Stripe’s $1.1B acquisition: Implications for Solana and crypto VC</a>



But the Stripe/Bridge deal wasn’t the only piece of <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/empire-newsletter-dydx-founder-comeback">M&amp;A activity</a> this week. Crypto custodian Komainu — which is backed by Nomura — also <a href="https://komainu.com/resources/komainu-agrees-to-acquire-propine-in-singapore-to-expand-its-footprint-in-asia-ex-japan">announced</a> that it was acquiring Propine, a rival based in Singapore.&nbsp;



The deal amount was not disclosed.&nbsp;



On the funding front, we saw Azura — a DeFi platform — <a href="https://x.com/azura/status/1848712029244428443">announce</a> a $6.9 million round alongside its launch.&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Our goal is to allow anyone, from anywhere, to trade any asset—enabled by DeFi. Considering the scope of this problem, we&#39;ve decided to establish a new category: The first application and interfacing standard enabled to support any blockchain and any protocol. 2/ <a href="https://t.co/OgxGSZMi83">pic.twitter.com/OgxGSZMi83</a>&mdash; Azura (@azura) <a href="https://twitter.com/azura/status/1848712032239157687?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 22, 2024</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Notable news:</h2>



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Shuttle Labs <a href="https://x.com/GeniusTerminal/status/1849105492754452559">said</a> it raised $6 million to build Genius, a self-custodial crypto exchange. Investors included CMCC, Flow Traders and Anthony Scaramucci’s SALT.</li>



<li>MoonWalk Fitness <a href="https://x.com/moonwalkfitness/status/1849481961137377538">announced</a> a $3.4 million seed round led by Hack VC. Binance Labs, Flowdesk and Reciprocal Ventures all participated.</li>
</ul>



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<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/thedrop">The Drop</a>: Apps, games, memes and more.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed">Lightspeed</a>: All things Solana.</li>



<li><a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/supply-shock">Supply Shock</a>: Bitcoin, bitcoin, bitcoin.</li>
</ul>

Funding

Funding Roundup: Stripe buys Bridge for $1.1B, Azura bags $6.9M

Ben Strack

Payments company Stripe is set to acquire stablecoin platform Bridge in a deal the companies say will “accelerate the adoption and utility of tokenized dollars.”



The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the coming months, Bridge noted in a Monday blog post.



TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington <a href="https://x.com/arrington">reported</a> the value of the deal to be $1.1 billion. A Stripe spokesperson declined to comment on the deal terms, and Bridge did not immediately return a request for details.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/stripe-reintegrates-crypto-payments-in-the-us">Stripe reintegrates crypto payments in the US</a>



<a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/stripe">Stripe</a> CEO Patrick Collison said in an X post that his company seeks to build “the world’s best stablecoin infrastructure.”



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Stablecoins are room-temperature superconductors for financial services. Thanks to stablecoins, businesses around the world will benefit from significant speed, coverage, and cost improvements in the coming years. Stripe is going to build the world’s best stablecoin… <a href="https://t.co/6yKi7OKXVT">https://t.co/6yKi7OKXVT</a>&mdash; Patrick Collison (@patrickc) <a href="https://twitter.com/patrickc/status/1848393059559502177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 21, 2024</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Bridge launched its APIs in March 2023, Bridge co-founder Zach Abrams said in an X <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/zacharyabrams/">post</a>. Though the company’s first year was “hard,” he added, it saw initial interest from cross-border payments companies and started to scale.&nbsp;



“After that, we had government entities onboard with us to disburse aid, fintechs build US dollar-based savings and spending products, SpaceX to manage their global treasury, and many others,” Abrams wrote.



Visa and SWIFT have since started to natively support <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/stablecoins">stablecoins</a>, Bridge noted in its Monday blog post.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/visa-impact-on-stablecoin-adoption">Why Visa’s new stablecoin efforts could be a game-changer</a>



“Policymakers across the globe are <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/micar-foreign-stablecoins-advantage-in-europe">working to provide clarity</a> and support for stablecoin infrastructure, recognizing the technology’s strategic importance for our financial system,” the company wrote. “And in the background, stablecoin adoption and usage have been <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/a16z-monthly-active-addresses-aths">rapidly accelerating</a>.”



<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-paypal-stablecoins-keep-notching-gains">The market capitalization of stablecoins</a> currently sits just above $170 billion, according to DefiLlama <a href="https://defillama.com/stablecoins">data</a>.&nbsp;



Eric Risley, founding partner at advisory firm Architect Partners, said he believes this deal is “the most important <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/m&amp;a">M&amp;A</a> transaction to date for our industry.”



“This transaction is more evidence of the broadening recognition that stablecoin-based payments have compelling benefits and are being embraced by non-crypto companies,” he told Blockworks.



Those benefits include virtually instant settlement and very low fees, he added, which are particularly notable for cross-border payments between businesses and individuals.



“It&#8217;s hard to imagine a more fundamentally competitive move against the traditional banking system,” Risley said. “Payments at scale without a bank involved.”



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Stripe looks to build ‘world’s best stablecoin infrastructure’ after Bridge buy 

Jack Kubinec

Following <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/stripe-to-bring-back-crypto-payments">months of build-up</a>, the fintech giant Stripe officially brought back crypto payments in the US, a product lead announced yesterday via X.&nbsp;



Customers can pay merchants in USDC or USDP on Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon, while US-based merchants are paid in dollars. Stripe takes 1.5% of the transaction amount, which is lower than the 2.9% plus $0.30 fee it typically <a href="https://stripe.com/pricing">charges</a> on card payments. The move comes nearly seven years after Stripe <a href="https://stripe.com/blog/ending-Bitcoin-support">discontinued</a> its first crypto experiment amid the growing realization that bitcoin would not become a blockchain optimized for payments. Stripe <a href="https://stripe.com/blog/bitcoin-the-stripe-perspective">began</a> its foray into crypto in 2014.&nbsp;



The check-out flow, which you can mess around with <a href="https://t.co/g1ryr2ZvZv">here</a>, involves connecting a crypto wallet and signing a transaction from Stripe before paying with your stablecoin of choice. Interestingly, fees appear to be abstracted away from the user, so Solana isn’t really given a chance to flex its cheap fees relative to Ethereum’s.



On one hand, it’s a big deal for crypto adoption that Stripe is dipping its toes back into crypto. Most of anyone who has paid for things on the internet has interacted with Stripe’s payment flows.&nbsp;



Stripe’s stablecoin usage can make it easier for US merchants to sell to international customers, since the fintech firm <a href="https://stripe.com/pricing">charges</a> an extra 150 bips for international cards. In its first 24 hours of crypto reintegration, customers from more than 70 countries paid with stablecoins on Stripe, <a href="https://x.com/BackseatVC/status/1844074052576821445">according</a> to another Stripe employee.&nbsp;



But still, cards are certain to account for a large majority of US internet payments for the foreseeable future. Crypto payments solutions like Stripe’s (<a href="https://blockworks.co/news/helio-upgrades-solana-pay-plugin-for-shopify">and Shopify’s before it</a>) have a bit of a discoverability problem: a minority of people use crypto wallets, and there’s no central repository of merchants for crypto users to find crypto-friendly merchants. (I learned this firsthand while <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/lightspeed-newsletter-solana-stablecoin-purchases">trying to pay for things</a> with stablecoins this summer).



There may also be structural forces getting in the way of Stripe’s crypto payment solution catching on as currently conceived. In a blog <a href="https://substack.com/home/post/p-150031096?source=queue">post</a>, Nico Pei from Sky Lab characterized Stripe’s payment solution — which relies on wallets and their sometimes-onerous requirements — as “useful for crypto-natives” but “unintuitive” for everyone else.&nbsp;



Pei also characterized the 1.5% fee, which is already 50% cheaper than current alternatives, as “predatory” given how little crypto payments actually cost Stripe.&nbsp;



And for crypto payments to actually compete with the credit card giants, Pei says, they’ll need to compete with the sprawling ecosystem of cash back, travel points, and loyalty rewards that incentivize customers to make use of credit cards.&nbsp;



Stripe reintegrating crypto is certainly an encouraging sign for the uptake of crypto payments — something I’m always intrigued by for Lightspeed, given Solana’s focus on payments use cases.



But for the time being, I tend to agree with Pei that this current iteration is likely to tickle a small group of crypto enthusiasts, and leave much of the rest of the payments world untouched.



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Payments

Stripe reintegrates crypto payments in the US

Global payments company Stripe announced that it was going to start allowing crypto payments on Thursday at the company’s Global Internet Economy conference.&nbsp;



Speaking at the final keynote, titled the Future of Payments, Stripe’s president John Collison,&nbsp; said, “our history with crypto goes back a long time.” He <a href="https://stripe.com/blog/ending-bitcoin-support#:~:text=Therefore%2C%20starting%20today%2C%20we%20are,transactions%20on%20April%2023%2C%202018.">cited</a> the company’s now-defunct bitcoin support back in 2018 because it wasn’t being used.&nbsp;



“We&#8217;re excited to announce that we&#8217;re bringing back crypto as a way to accept payments, but this time with a much better experience,” he <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GnSlQz-14JY">announced</a>.



Due to the fact that crypto has more use cases and, as Collison’s presentation said, “crypto’s back,” Stripe decided to bring back crypto payments.&nbsp;



“Crypto is finding real utility,” Collison said. “With transaction speeds increasing and costs coming down, we’re seeing crypto finally making sense as a means of exchange.”



The feature, he added, will be available later this summer.&nbsp;



The company hasn’t made any crypto-centric announcements since last year.&nbsp;



Read more: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/payment-company-stripe-enables-crypto-payouts-in-usdc">Payment company Stripe enables crypto payouts in USDC</a>



Collison told <a href="https://www.axios.com/2023/05/11/stripes-crypto-strategy">Axios</a> last spring that the company saw potential in crypto, though it wasn’t going to switch its strategy to focus more on the space.



Collison said at the time that, despite the fact that some of their early crypto products faced a lack of demand, the company was still interested in the role crypto could play in the future.



Just last May, Stripe debuted a fiat-to-crypto onramp.



“The embeddable onramp is helpful for <a href="https://blockworks.co/tag/web3">Web3</a> companies that want to fully customize the branding and customer experience, while the Stripe-hosted option provides an even easier way for users to get started,” the company said in a press release at the time.



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Stripe to bring back crypto payments in the next few months

Bessie Liu

Global payments processing company Stripe is launching its own fiat-to-crypto on-ramp, allowing customers to exchange dollars for cryptocurrencies.



Stripe’s new transactions solution is billed as a customizable widget, which can be directly embedded within different DeFi platforms.&nbsp;



The most common way to on-ramp fiat-to-crypto today is to purchase cryptocurrencies through a centralized exchange — including the likes of Coinbase, Binance, Kraken and the recently deceased FTX. To partake in DeFi, one then transfers the cryptocurrency to a third-party wallet.



As a major payments processor for prominent Web2 companies, such as Apple and Walmart, Stripe’s decision to step further into the crypto world during a time when centralized exchanges are under heightened scrutiny can help DeFi become more accessible to mainstream consumers.&nbsp;



“It’s extremely difficult to get end users ‘on chain’— that is, to fund their wallets with the crypto required to interface with Web3 applications,” Jennifer Lee, product manager at Stripe, wrote in a <a href="https://stripe.com/blog/crypto-onramp" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blog post</a>.&nbsp;



Lee added: “Developers have to wrestle with rampant fraud; navigate complex KYC requirements; and somehow still offer a seamless, high-conversion payments experience so that their users can actually use their Web3 applications.”



Stripe says it will handle tasks related to KYC requirements, payments, fraud and compliance.



Companies that <a href="https://support.link.co/questions/which-websites-support-purchasing-crypto-with-link" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">already partner</a> with Stripe for fiat-to-crypto on-ramp services include NFT marketplace Magic Eden, social NFT platform Nifty&#8217;s, and decentralized exchange Orca.



There are very limited ways to use DeFi services without a centralized mediator. Stripe’s latest fiat-to-crypto onramp will compete with non-custodial exchanges, such as <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/kado-brings-fiat-on-off-ramp-to-cosmos" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Kado</a>, which recently moved to bring its on- and off-ramp services to Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, Cosmos and Axelar.



Kado welcomes the new competition.



&#8220;It&#8217;s great to see more established payment companies coming into the space, which has been part of our thesis all along,&#8221; CEO Emery Andrew told Blockworks via e-mail, adding &#8220;Payments innovation has always been one of the no brainer use cases for blockchain and cryptocurrency.&#8221;



Born out of the old Terra ecosystem, Kado initially launched a Terra UST native on-ramp and now supports Cosmos, Avalanche, Ethereum, and Solana, allowing transfers from bank accounts directly to wallets in fewer than five minutes.



For now, Stripe’s new products are slated to only be available to US customers, with availability to other countries in the works.



Updated on Dec. 2, 2022 at 1:44 pm ET: A comment from Kado was added.



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payments systems

Stripe Enables Fiat-to-crypto On-ramp

<div id="highlights-block_62b9d1da21045" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Some NFT merchants are increasing their mint prices to maintain fiat value</li>
 <li>Mastercard and Stripe are creating systems to exchange NFTs with fiat currency</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Downstream from the general decline in cryptocurrency prices, NFT creators face a trade-off: increase their mint price in crypto terms — or book steep fiat losses.&nbsp;



The price-depressed crypto market favors NFT (non-fungible token) collectors, as creators conscientious of ethical and pragmatic implications hesitate to raise their mint prices — the cost of creating a digital collectible on a blockchain, such as Ethereum.&nbsp;



Sellers looking to avoid losses have often had to double or triple their initial mint prices. Because of the price volatility, traditional payment processors are collaborating with NFT marketplaces to make fiat payment mainstream in the space.



Social media website 9GAG faced the pricing dilemma with its recent Memeland “YOU THE REAL MVP” NFT rollout. Memeland ran a blind auction on Discord that set the mint price at 5.3 ether. From the time bidding opened June 9 to when the NFTs were distributed June 16, the price of ETH fell from more than $1,800 to under $1,100.&nbsp;



Memeland <a href="https://twitter.com/memeland/status/1537141451162718209?s=20&amp;t=BFazRoAFmkeW6pFjHdWgtw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a> it maintained the initial mint price — despite ether’s fall — to avoid sending “a wrong message that we would change price in order to maximize gain.” 



Memeland went on to thank its buyers for their “trust…despite the bad market conditions.” Artists are weighing their buyers’ continued trust as they consider whether to increase mints.



Jill Brandenburg, an NFT artist whose Andy Warhol-inspired work was displayed in Times Square this month, is “giving collectors the benefit of the dip” in ETH.&nbsp;



“If I raised my prices and had to lower them back down, I wouldn’t feel like I ethically did right by my collectors,” Brandenburg said. “.12 ETH is .12 ETH, no matter what the market determines.”&nbsp;



But with crypto exchanges riled by <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/babel-finance-working-to-ease-unusual-liquidity-pressures/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">liquidity issues</a> and <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/security-threat-exposed-for-browser-based-crypto-wallets/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">security concerns</a>, collectors are not, for the most part, buying the dip. Primary and secondary NFT sales are both down more than 20% in volume and fiat value over the past week, according to <a href="https://nonfungible.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">NonFungible.com</a>.



NFT merchants must reckon with the financial consequences of falling crypto prices. WAGMI Beach gave its new Bubblegoose Ballers NFT collection a price tag of two SOL (the native token of Ethereum competitor Solana’s blockchain) —&nbsp; around $300 — when the project hit in May.&nbsp;



Last week, WAGMI Beach increased the mint to seven SOL to match its original projected fiat value.&nbsp;



“Because we are a prime example of an NFT that is actually bridging the gap between web2 and web3, our required funding is viewed in fiat rather than SOL,” the company <a href="https://twitter.com/BubblegooseXYZ/status/1535336183877750786?s=20&amp;t=Zu0rBAlq2-WvBJpHzUm6iw" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a>. “Therefore, our mint price is still tied to that $250-300 range, not 2 SOL.”



Allowing mints to be set in fiat is becoming a trendy solution to the volatility of the NFT market. Mastercard and Stripe both launched initiatives to integrate their payment services with NFT marketplaces this year. The companies aim to disrupt the system of NFTs being exchanged between wallets.



“Cryptocurrency enthusiasts are used to this process. But for most people, it&#8217;s not simple, it’s not intuitive. We think it should be much easier,” Raj Dhamodharan, a blockchain-focused executive at Mastercard, said in a January blog post.&nbsp;



If Mastercard’s plan succeeds, mints will be available via fiat.&nbsp;



Sean Stein Smith, a professor at Lehman College who studies blockchain, believes price volatility is a “large obstacle” to broader adoption of unique digital collectibles. The stability of fiat currency as a backdrop for buyers and sellers would draw new consumers to NFTs and “attract ideas and capital into more fundamentally sound projects,” Smith said.



Smith underscored how the technological basis of NFTs remains unchanged — despite falling crypto values. To focus only on price, instead of potential <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/seansteinsmith/2022/06/19/nft-meltdowns-are-paving-the-way-for-better-use-cases/?sh=7075992d40a4" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">use cases</a>, is like “focusing your eyes on the crust of the steak [instead of] how it’s cooked and how it tastes.”



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</ul>

9GAG

NFT Artists Struggle To Price Mints Amid Crypto Crash

David Canellis

<div id="highlights-block_627a63ec98831" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Meduza continues to document Russia&#8217;s invasion of Ukraine despite Moscow&#8217;s ban on independent reporting</li>
 <li>The Riga-based outlet was cut off from payment rail Stripe under strict Western sanctions imposed earlier this year</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Independent Russian-language website Meduza has raised more than $260,000 in crypto after Western sanctions crippled its ability to field donations through other means.



Meduza, which operates out of Latvia, turned to crypto after fintech giant Stripe stopped supporting payments to the website. 



The <a href="https://meduza.io/en" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">news outlet</a> was established in the wake of Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. Independent reporting on the Ukrainian war is now basically illegal, but Meduza still publicly investigates and documents alleged Russian war crimes from its Riga newsroom.



Russia’s internet censors now block multiple news outlets — including Meduza — forcing Russia-based readers to access the site via virtual private networks and Telegram channels.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/IKjbZ7YAAdjxFX-nVWW8DPi8mjLtztiPL9jMO2SEG20KSZpAOoGURZltoLrnyVZDItWk-QQwyoyEix27z01XI4T9lDUXbfQnifriZ1_6XpWEInk_dq8dUlThuu7R97LEkbXfcd8rN5KWC_6t0Q" alt=""/><figcaption>Meduza&#8217;s homepage</figcaption></figure>



Last year, Meduza was labeled a “foreign agent,” which ultimately put a stop to local advertising revenue. Crypto has now reportedly enabled Meduza to rely entirely on funds sent from foreigners for the first time.&nbsp;



Before the war, Meduza fielded donations from around 30,000 Russian readers, according to Bloomberg. The outlet’s traffic has since been slashed by a third.



Meduza has recently been asking international audiences to donate cash (dollars, euros and crypto). It accepts bitcoin, ether (and Ethereum-based tokens), monero, BNB (and other BNB Chain tokens), Zcash, and Tether (USDT). Fiat contributions can still be sent via bank transfer or PayPal.



Meduza’s crypto donors have so far sent 3.75 BTC ($117,400), nearly 50 ETH ($118,400), and more than $30,000 in various ERC-20 and BNB Chain tokens, including stablecoins Tether and USDC. None of the trackable crypto has been withdrawn so far, according to blockchain data reviewed by Blockworks.



Large individual contributions include 12 ETH ($28,500) received last Monday and 1 BTC ($31,500) netted the day after.&nbsp;



The outlet says it will use that money to quickly resettle its 25 journalists, mostly in the Latvian capital. Meduza Editor-in-Chief Ivan Kolpakov told reporters that Meduza is currently only raising half of what it needs.



Germany’s Deutsche Welle and US-funded Radio Free Europe have also set up shop in Riga following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russian independent outlet Novaya Gazeta is planning to start a new operation there as well, noted Bloomberg.



In any case, Meduza joins a growing list of journalistic organizations to accept contributions via crypto, including the Freedom of the Press Foundation, WikiLeaks, Bellingcat and the Committee to Protect Journalists.



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Crypto

Russian-language Journalists Forced off Stripe by Sanctions Turn to Crypto

<div id="highlights-block_6262d3d2466da" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Circle CEO says Stripe’s launch is an “indicator of things to come”</li>
 <li>Creator earnings will be paid into Polygon-compatible wallets like Metamask, Coinbase Wallet or Rainbow Wallet</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Payments company Stripe is now enabling crypto payments in USD Coin (USDC), and Twitter creators will be the first to use the service.



The process for fans and customers to pay creators, freelancers, sellers and &#8220;solopreneurs&#8221; can be difficult, especially outside of major markets, Stripe Product Manager Karan Sharma said in a Friday <a href="https://stripe.com/blog/expanding-global-payouts-with-crypto" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blog post</a>.



“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,” Sharma wrote.



The crypto payouts will be added to Connect, the payouts platform Stripe created in 2015. Businesses currently use Connect to programmatically send payouts to roughly 70 countries in local currencies.&nbsp;



A select group of creators on Twitter, Stripe’s first partner, will be able to use crypto-based rails to receive earnings from the social media platform. Twitter already uses Connect to pay creators though its <a href="https://media.twitter.com/en/articles/blogs/2021/be-the-first-to-try-ticketed-spaces-and-super-follows" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ticketed Spaces and Super Follows</a> products.



Payouts will first be supported in the USDC stablecoin via the Polygon PoS (MATIC) network, according to the company. Creator earnings will be paid into Polygon-compatible wallets such as Metamask, Coinbase Wallet or Rainbow Wallet, and creators can hold their earnings as USDC or convert them into a local currency.



Jeremy Allaire, the CEO of Circle — the firm behind USDC — said in <a href="https://twitter.com/jerallaire/status/1517489261192392704" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Twitter posts</a> that the promise of digital currencies such as USDC has enabled anyone to easily receive payments anywhere in the world.



“Having one of the most important payments companies in the world adopting USDC is an indicator of things to come,” Allaire tweeted. “We<a href="https://twitter.com/circlepay"> </a>share their mission to grow the GDP of the internet, and believe USDC is going to become a key building block for internet commerce.”



Sharma said that Stripe plans to add additional rails and payout currencies over time and seeks to support crypto payouts in more than 120 countries by the end of the year.



Stripe <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/stripe-jumps-back-into-crypto-providing-new-payment-options-for-consumers-and-companies/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced partnerships last month</a> with FTX and Blockchain.com to offer support for exchanges, on-ramps, wallets and non-fungible token (NFT) marketplaces.



Stripe became the first major payments company to support bitcoin payments in 2014, but ended its support of the cryptoasset in 2018. “Bitcoin has evolved to become better-suited to being an asset than being a means of exchange,” <a href="https://stripe.com/blog/ending-bitcoin-support" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Stripe wrote</a> at the time.



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Payment Company Stripe Enables Crypto Payouts in USDC

<div id="highlights-block_622bbb9b36233" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>Crypto companies have privately complained about poor authorization rates and reliability, Stripe spokesperson says</li>
 <li>Stripe helps FTX users buy crypto and helps the exchange weed out potential fraudsters from legitimate customers</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



Payments company Stripe is delving back into crypto, offering support for the space’s exchanges, on-ramps, wallets and NFT marketplaces, and has partnered with FTX and Blockchain.com.



Stripe became the first major payments company to support bitcoin payments in 2014 but ended its support of the cryptoasset in 2018.&nbsp;



“Crypto is going mainstream,” the company wrote in a Thursday blog post. “To better support our customers and continue to grow the GDP of the internet, we are working to give crypto businesses access to today’s global financial infrastructure.”



Stripe co-founder John Collison <a href="https://twitter.com/collision/status/1501961880289480704" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">tweeted</a> that the company would offer crypto businesses “not just pay-ins but payouts, KYC and identity verification, fraud prevention and lots more.”



Crypto derivatives exchange FTX and its US affiliate, FTX US, announced Thursday that they will use Stripe to build an onboarding and identity verification flow for users joining the exchange, and to enable payments for users adding funds to their FTX account.



President of FTX US Brett Harrison earlier said integrating with Stripe would provide “greatly increased speed of KYC processing, higher rates of automated approvals and a smoother [user experience] for our customers.”



Stripe allows FTX users to purchase crypto with debit cards and automated clearing house transactions directly from their bank, according to <a href="https://stripe.com/newsroom/stories/ftx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">a Thursday statement</a>. Stripe Radar uses machine-learning models and signals, such as customer details and billing information, to weed out potential fraudsters from legitimate customers.



“Crypto companies have been poorly served by other payments providers, with many privately complaining of poor authorization rates and reliability,” a Stripe spokesperson told Blockworks. “We are bringing world-leading payments infrastructure to help crypto companies offer better on-ramps for new and existing users.”



Transacting with crypto has historically been too difficult for the average user or business, according to Matthew Gould, founder and CEO of blockchain company Unstoppable Domains.



“The fear of sending money to the wrong address or paying too much in fees has hindered mainstream adoption, and it’s great to see companies like Stripe working to solve this,” he told Blockworks. “Stripe has already penetrated the payments market, and now its users will have better access to secure crypto transactions through a single integration.”



With headquarters in San Francisco and Dublin, Stripe, founded in 2011, supports millions of companies in 120 countries.



&#8220;It is wonderful to see traditional payment companies starting to integrate digital currency payments for vendors and consumers,” Nina Tannenbaum, head of business operation at blockchain protocol Algorand, said. “We are seeing growing adoption of the payments and remittance sector on Algorand, and can appreciate how organizations like Stripe are helping to drive more mainstream adoption of digital assets.”



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