Global payments giant Stripe is building what it calls “AWS for money,” and crypto technology is at the center of that plan.
At the RWA Summit in Cannes, France, Adrien Duchâteau, Stripe’s head of crypto go-to-market, said the company is now integrating stablecoins and blockchain across its core payments stack as it looks to modernize how money moves globally.
“We’re putting more of our stack on the chain product by product,” he said.
The move builds on the company’s long, if bumpy, history with crypto. Stripe was one of the earliest major tech companies to embrace bitcoin which enabled BTC payments as early as 2014 before withdrawing in 2018 when volatility made it impractical for traders, Duchâteau said. The company returned in 2021 with a dedicated crypto team, betting that the underlying technology was mature enough to support real-world use, he added.
Acceleration of payments with stablecoins
The company’s blockchain ambition focuses on solving a core problem: global payments remain slow and expensive. Cross-border transfers, Duchâteau explained, still rely on systems like SWIFT, which can take days to settle. For platforms that pay creators or contractors, this delay often dictates payout schedules.
Stripe processes nearly $2 trillion in annual payments — about 2% of global GDP — and serves over 5 million businesses around the globe, so even incremental improvements to settlement can have far-reaching effects, he said.
“We operate in T+3 network,” he said, meaning a transaction often takes three days from the moment of payment to settlement. “If you reduce it to zero, that’s a magnitude of change.”
To realize this vision, Stripe acquired stablecoin infrastructure firm Bridge for $1.1 billion in 2024, then acquired crypto wallet provider Privy. It also partnered with crypto investment firm Paradigm to develop a payments-focused blockchain called Tempo, which went live last month with infrastructure partners such as Mastercard, UBS, Klarna and Visa.
The company is already rolling out stablecoin features. Sellers can accept stablecoins at checkout, including through Shopify, while platforms like Remote.com allow users to receive payouts in crypto. Through Bridge, it also helps fintechs like Klarna and Slash to issue and integrate stablecoins into their operations.
Where bank rails fall short
The demand arises in places where traditional systems fall short. Duchâteau pointed to users in emerging markets seeking dollar exposure, as well as a growing number of customers turning to stablecoins after card payments fail.
“We see people whose cards are declined switching to stablecoins,” he said.
Stripe’s approach is not to replace fiat, but to abstract the difference. Over time, Duchâteau said, users won’t need to know whether a transaction is running on traditional or blockchain rails.
Stripe’s ambition, he said, is to become the “AWS for money,” directing and orchestrating the movement of money across systems the way cloud platforms manage computing resources globally.
That includes future products beyond payments, such as offering returns or capital access in markets where Stripe has previously had limited reach. Duchâteau pointed to emerging countries like Argentina as an example where stablecoins and decentralized finance (DeFi) could enable services that are difficult to provide through traditional banking.
“The technology wasn’t there before. Now we’ve come to a point where we can actually realize it,” he said. “We’re super excited and we’re doubling down.”
