Coinbase and Stripe will collaborate on bringing on- and off-ramps on both platforms for users wanting to access stablecoins easily. The ramps will let them convert fiat to USDC and vice versa for national currencies from 150 nations. The deal will integrate USDC settlements made from on Base, a quick and cost-effective layer 2 rollup for Ethereum developed by Coinbase.
In April, co-founder and President of Stripe, John Collison, announced during the company’s Sessions event that it would provide access to stablecoins for its users. He reiterated the same in an X post, “Crypto is back. @Stripe will start supporting global stablecoin payments this summer. Transactions instantly settle on-chain and automatically convert to fiat. Join the waitlist https://stripe.com/use-cases/crypto#request-invite… and watch the demo (h/t @Solana) from Sessions.”
Stripe has finally followed through with that promise. It previously supported bitcoin in 2014 but ended the support because of the asset’s volatility not serving as an efficient medium of payment. Around that time, Stripe also integrated on- and off-ramps to acquire and liquidate Avalanche’s AVAX tokens.
Now, it brings USDC, as stablecoins act as the perfect medium of on-chain payments thanks to their stable characteristic. Unlike volatile cryptocurrencies, the value of stablecoins references other relatively stable assets, like national currencies or precious metals. USDC’s value is pegged to the US dollar.
This partnership also displays Coinbase’s rapid expansion efforts despite the SEC’s (Securities and Exchange Commission’s) to make difficult digital asset innovation in the US. Coinbase is registered and trades publicly in the same jurisdiction. Stablecoins are a widely debated aspect of digital assets for policymakers in the US, and Coinbase going ahead with this partnership indicates its confidence in digital assets prevailing the evoked created by the SEC.
Moreover, Coinbase sued the SEC on 27 June for failing to meet its request to provide needed materials under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Coinbase’s suit mentions the SEC failing to provide reasoning behind its decision to consider Ether a security and force service providers from delisting the asset from their platforms. Nevertheless, the SEC changed its tune this month to consider Ether a commodity.
