Payments giant Stripe is making a significant move into the stablecoin arena, marking a potential turning point for the future of financial transactions.
Speaking to Bloomberg, Stripe co-founder and president, John Collison, confirmed that the company has begun early talks with traditional banks to explore how stablecoins could be integrated into existing financial infrastructures.
“Banks are very interested in how they should be integrated with stablecoins into their product offerings as well. This is not something that banks are just kind of brushing away or treating as a fad”, Collison said in the interview.
The comments reflect a notable shift in sentiment among major financial players. Once seen as a peripheral innovation, stablecoins are now gaining ground as serious tools for cross-border transactions and digital commerce.
Collison suggested that Stripe’s future payment operations could increasingly rely on these digital tokens. “A lot of our future payment volume is going to be in stablecoins”, he said.
Stripe’s interest in stablecoins is not just theoretical. In October 2024, the company finalised a $1.1 billion acquisition of Bridge, a Texas-based stablecoin platform that has worked with major names such as SpaceX and Stellar.
The deal was seen as a clear signal of intent to deepen Stripe’s involvement in the stablecoin sector and support broader adoption for global transactions.
The company isn’t stopping there. A new stablecoin product focused on the US dollar is currently under development.
Aimed at corporate users outside the United States, the UK, and Europe, the product is intended to expand the dollar’s reach through simplified and cost-effective international payments. Though still in testing, it points toward Stripe’s growing ambition in this space.
More recently, Stripe launched Stablecoin Financial Accounts, allowing businesses in 101 countries to manage funds in dollar-backed stablecoins.
Alongside this, the firm introduced its Payments Foundation Model, an AI-driven tool that improves fraud detection and raises the chances of successful transaction approvals.
Stripe has now assembled a dedicated global team of around 100 employees focusing on stablecoin and crypto-related developments.
The company is also expanding its workforce in San Francisco, New York, Dublin, and London to support its long-term crypto strategy.
Wall Street and global banks turn to stablecoins
The excitement around stablecoins isn’t confined to fintechs like Stripe. Wall Street and major banks are now actively exploring stablecoin initiatives, marking a notable change from past scepticism.
In the United States, financial heavyweights such as JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, and Wells Fargo are working together on a potential stablecoin project.
The collaboration aims to offer a competitive alternative to digital asset platforms, ensuring banks retain a strong foothold in the evolving payments ecosystem.
These bank-led stablecoins are designed to be fully compliant with existing regulations, making them more appealing to mainstream customers and businesses. Regulatory clarity is also expected to improve soon.
The US government is currently preparing its first comprehensive crypto legislation, with a bill focused on stablecoins leading the legislative agenda.
The trend isn’t limited to the United States. Banco Santander, a leading Spanish bank, is considering the launch of its own stablecoin while growing its retail crypto offerings.
In France, Société Générale is preparing to release a dollar-backed stablecoin via its crypto division, SG Forge, using the Ethereum blockchain.
According to a report from blockchain analytics firm Artemis, stablecoins facilitated $94 billion in transactions between January 2023 and February 2025.
Business-to-business (B2B) payments accounted for a large chunk, with an estimated $36 billion processed annually.
The stablecoin sector is currently dominated by Tether’s $USDT and Circle’s $USDC, primarily operating on the Tron and Ethereum networks.
Their widespread usage in global payments illustrates how integral stablecoins have become in the broader financial landscape.
Strike’s lending service
While Stripe and traditional banks are embracing stablecoins, other firms are pushing boundaries in different corners of the crypto ecosystem. One such company is Strike, led by CEO, Jack Mallers.
Mallers recently announced that Strike would offer a new Bitcoin-backed lending service with competitive single-digit interest rates.
The service is designed for users who want to borrow against their Bitcoin holdings. According to Mallers, the minimum loan amount will be $10,000, with loans available up to $1 billion.
Importantly, he stressed that customer collateral will be stored in a wallet and not rehypothecated. “The deposited $BTC remains in your wallet”, Mallers noted, indicating that the funds won’t be reused by the firm for other purposes – a reassurance for borrowers concerned about transparency and risk.
Strike currently holds around 1,500 Bitcoin and is looking to expand its lending operations beyond the US to regions including Europe, the UK, Latin America, and Africa.
“Bitcoin is the best collateral known to man”, Mallers stated, underlining the firm’s confidence in the asset’s strength and reliability.
Meanwhile, data from analytics providers such as Glassnode shows that Bitcoin’s financial derivatives markets are experiencing significant growth.
Open interest in Bitcoin options recently hit an all-time high of $46.2 billion, up $25.8 billion from earlier lows. This surge has even surpassed the growth seen in Bitcoin futures, highlighting increased demand for advanced trading tools.
Bitcoin futures open interest has also reached record levels, further indicating heightened activity across the market. According to researchers, Bitcoin is nearing a key resistance point around $120,000, coinciding with a rise in on-chain volume directed through exchanges—now at 33%.
Market analysts from platforms like Amberdata point to this trend as evidence of a maturing crypto market.
More traders are now adopting sophisticated strategies to manage risk and capture gains, suggesting that Bitcoin is no longer just an asset for long-term holding but also a tool for professional financial management.
The growing focus on stablecoins and crypto services from firms like Stripe, Strike, and traditional banks marks a new phase in digital finance.
As these initiatives unfold, they could reshape the way businesses and individuals interact with money across borders, blending the stability of traditional finance with the speed and innovation of blockchain technology.
