TBW - John Egan (Stripe): "We want to build a global network for payments and treasury"
"We want to build a global network for payments and treasury".
The Big Whale: Stripe seems to have accelerated very strongly in crypto. You acquired Bridge and then Privy. What is your strategy in this area? And should we expect further acquisitions?
John Egan: That's a very good question, although I can't comment too much on the possibility of further acquisitions. What I can say is that Stripe has never been a stranger to the world of digital assets. We started exploring this area back in 2014, at a time when Bitcoin was still very dominant in discussions. The initial enthusiasm was very much about Bitcoin's potential as a payment method... but we soon realised that it wasn't viable. Who today doesn't regret spending Bitcoins ten years ago? Personally, I paid for a hotel night in France via Expedia in 2014 with BTC, and looking back, it cost me $65,000. That's an anecdote that clearly shows that volatility was not compatible with payment.
What really changed everything were stablecoins. They have made it possible to reconcile the initial promises of cryptos - speed, accessibility, globality - with the stability needed for concrete use cases. And from this perspective, their fit with Stripe's vision is remarkable. Since our inception, we've wanted to build a global network for payments and cash. Our role, historically, has been to simplify a complex, fragmented and inefficient global financial system. With stablecoins, we have a payment layer that is programmable, interoperable, fast and inexpensive. This doesn't change our vision: it just makes it much more powerful.
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What are the concrete crypto products Stripe is offering today?
We have several products that are already live. The first is stablecoin payment acceptance, launched last year. This is available to all merchants who use Stripe in the United States. With just a few clicks, they can add the USDC payment option, in particular via our optimised payment suite or our invoicing module. It literally takes ten minutes. The benefit is twofold: on the one hand, we reach customers who want to pay in stablecoins, particularly in AI or tech; on the other, the merchant receives in fiat, just like with a traditional bank card.
Then, we launched "payouts" in stablecoins, used, for example, by Remote.com to pay salaries around the world. In this case, it is the company that pays in fiat, and the recipient who receives in stablecoin. This bypasses banking red tape in certain countries and provides rapid access to digital dollars. Third product: financial accounts in stablecoins. This is a cash management tool. The most obvious example is Shopify: merchants can receive payments in USDC and choose to keep them in this form. It's no longer a simple flow, it's a real store of value.
We've opened up this service in 101 new countries where Stripe wasn't previously available, such as Argentina, Vietnam and Turkey. Thanks to stablecoins, we can offer digital dollar accounts there, with the ability to interact with traditional payment systems (ACH, SEPA, etc.). It's a game-changer for a lot of companies exporting to the US.
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"Everything seems to indicate that global finance is moving more and more towards these digital rails"
You've also launched a stablecoin-backed card in collaboration with Ramp. How does this work?
Yes, we recently introduced a stablecoin-backed bank card solution, with Ramp as our initial partner. The idea is simple: to allow merchants who hold USDC to use a card to make payments in the traditional network, for example to pay for AWS or Google Ads. It's a classic debit card, but one that's "settled" in stablecoins.
This connects two worlds: that of blockchains and that of the historic banking rails. And it's all based on Bridge's infrastructure, which also enables card issuance, payment orchestration and global treasury operations. For example, SpaceX uses Bridge to repatriate Starlink payments received around the world into dollars.
You cited several impressive figures. How important are stablecoins today in the digital economy? Do you think they will become dominant?
The dynamics are really striking. If you look at adjusted on-chain volumes, stablecoins have reached around $7.6 trillion in the last twelve months. And that figure rises to $36,000 billion if you take unadjusted gross volumes into account. This is gigantic. In terms of supply, five years ago, stablecoins represented barely 10 billion dollars in circulation. Today, the figure is around 250 billion, a 25-fold increase. We're talking about a segment that has grown exponentially, fuelled by both B2B and B2C uses, even if B2B is still around 10 times larger at this stage.
Will these assets end up replacing traditional means of payment? It's obviously too early to say. But when you trace the curve, the trend is crystal clear. Everything seems to indicate that global finance is moving more and more towards these digital rails, and not just for technical or efficiency reasons. It's also a question of inclusivity, of ease of access, particularly in countries where banking systems are underdeveloped or too expensive.
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Is stablecoin integration good for Stripe's business? And are you attracting more crypto-native players?
Absolutely, on both counts. For Stripe, stablecoins are a direct opportunity to improve payment efficiency. If you look at our public rates, card payments today cost an average of 2.9% + 30 cents per transaction in the US. For stablecoin payments, it's around 1.5%, which means an immediate saving of 50% on the commission. This reduction in costs is good for us, because it broadens the addressable market, but it's also good for merchants. It's a double gain.
As far as user profiles are concerned, we're seeing a very clear acceleration. A lot of start-ups, particularly in artificial intelligence, are paying their bills in stablecoins. Sometimes for convenience, sometimes because their initial investors were themselves crypto players. Their revenues are in stablecoins, their suppliers are global, and so they have naturally adopted this standard. We're also seeing the arrival of digital marketplaces that are very focused on crypto users, and even more traditional merchants who are discovering that these rails make it possible to be global from day one.
And then there's this cultural shift. Until now, users with a Web wallet3, exposed to Ethereum, Bitcoin, NFTs... were called "crypto-natives"... Today, this category is broadening. More and more companies have no crypto on their balance sheet, but use stablecoins on a daily basis for their cash flow. They are also, in their own way, crypto-natives.
"Could Stripe one day create its own chain? Nothing is ruled out, but for the moment, it is not our priority"
With the rise of layer 2 solutions or the announcement of the Robinhood Chain, could Stripe eventually create its own blockchain?
This is a question we are often asked. Today, we operate in a multi-chain environment. Our products already work on 7 to 8 different blockchains (and more via our on-ramp), and we have a very agnostic approach. The market is changing fast, and our role is to adapt to user preferences, whether they're on Ethereum, Solana or something else. It's not Stripe's job to impose a chain, but to support those that meet our requirements for reliability, speed and security.
Now, could Stripe one day create its own chain? Nothing is ruled out, but for the moment it's not our priority. What we see emerging is more interest in 'private stablecoins', issued by merchants themselves, with greater control over reserves, compliance or vertical integration. That's what we're doing with USDB, the result of our acquisition of Bridge. It's a programmable stablecoin that allows merchants to have their own digital payment infrastructure. It's a paradigm shift.
You also acquired Privy, which makes it easy to create non-custodial wallets. Have you encountered any obstacles to its integration?
Yes, that's a real issue. The adoption of non-custodial wallets remains one of the biggest obstacles to the democratisation of on-chain finance. The paradox is that many users discover stablecoins in a very exciting context - they want to participate in this new economy, receive payment, access services - but find themselves blocked when it comes to creating a wallet. The diversity of channels, formats and tools creates a form of decision-making paralysis.
Privy allows us to respond to this by offering a simple development kit for generating wallets integrated into apps. We've seen this a lot with on-ramp products: people want to buy stablecoin, but don't know where to send it. With Privy, we can generate a lightweight, secure wallet in the user's own environment. It's a very significant step forward. But let's be clear: education remains essential. The user experience with wallets still needs to improve if it is to reach mass adoption.
The core of Stripe's business model is based on intermediation fees. But stablecoins allow us to drastically reduce transaction costs. How do you see your business model evolving in this context?
That's an excellent observation, and we share it. But for us, it's not a threat: it's an opportunity. Historically, Stripe first offered a payment tool, then a whole range of ancillary financial services: invoicing, fraud prevention (Radar), business creation (Atlas), cash management, etc. The integration of stablecoins means that we can offer this complete suite from day one, and often to customers who would not otherwise be able to benefit.
We shouldn't just look at the drop in unit commissions, but also the overall gain in efficiency. Thanks to stablecoins, we can eliminate the costs of exchange, banking network, interbank correspondence... which also weigh on us. A merchant using Stripe in Argentina or Nigeria sometimes pays significant hidden fees to convert their currency, receive in dollars or transfer funds. With stablecoins, these costs disappear. And this allows us to both lower our rates for users and preserve our margins.
There is also another dimension: that of micropaymentmentisation. With the emergence of agentic commerce - a future where intelligent agents interact with each other autonomously - we expect to see billions of low-value transactions circulating. Payments of 0.01 or 0.001 cents, for example. These flows only make sense if the costs themselves are compressible. But stablecoins are charged as a percentage, with no minimum fixed cost. This opens the way to an economy of granularity, where volume takes over from unit margins. And Stripe is well positioned to make this shift.
"Stripe is already an on-chain company"
You mention the possibility of a "rebuilt on-chain" Stripe. Is this a long-term goal? Is it realistic to migrate such an infrastructure to blockchain?
It's not a theoretical goal: it's already happening. Thanks to financial accounts in stablecoins, there are now dozens of countries where users' only interaction with Stripe is via blockchain rails. For these customers, Stripe is already an on-chain business. This includes the entire payment infrastructure, cash management, debit cards backed by USDC... The experience is fluid and never involves a traditional bank account.
In countries where we still operate in fiat, this is not a replacement, but a cohabitation. The idea is not to cannibalise our historic offerings, but to add a more efficient alternative to them. It is very possible that some of our functions will eventually be used more via stablecoins than bank rails. But this will depend on the pace of adoption market by market. The aim is not to rush things, but to offer our customers the tools that meet their needs - and this is often the case with stablecoins.
Besides, all these services are made possible by Bridge, our in-house infrastructure. It's also available to companies that want to build their own products. You can come to Stripe to integrate a stablecoin payment via our checkout, or use Bridge to create a global treasury system. The logic is the same: to be global, programmable and interoperable from the outset.
Could Stripe one day deploy its treasury on DeFi protocols like Morpho or Aave? Or offer these integrations to its customers?
That's an excellent question, and I can tell you that it's something we're actively exploring. Stripe is an international company with complex cash management needs. So it's in our interest to take advantage of protocols that enable real-time optimisation, dollar exposure and enhanced security. As long as this remains in line with our requirements - in terms of reliability, regulation, transparency - we intend to use the best solutions, including in decentralised finance.
But what interests us just as much is making these solutions accessible to our customers. We don't want to be the only ones to benefit from the advantages of on-chain finance. If we use a tool to optimise our cash flow, it makes sense to also offer it to a merchant, start-up or marketplace. This has been Stripe's strength from the outset: everything we use internally becomes an external product. So yes, it's very likely that we will connect to protocols like Morpho, and allow our users to do that too, seamlessly and securely.
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