Stripe Inc. will enable companies to pay their users in cryptocurrency through its popular payment processing platform. 

The first company to sign up is Twitter Inc., Stripe detailed in its announcement of the move today. Twitter offers a growing lineup of content monetization features for creators. Through the partnership with Stripe, the social media company will enable a “select group of creators” to receive revenue they generate using its monetization features in the form of cryptocurrency.

Stripe provides a cloud-based payment processing platform that is used by millions of companies worldwide. The startup received a $95 billion valuation after its most recent funding round last March. Stripe reportedly generated revenue of $7.4 billion in 2020, 70% more than a year earlier.

Stripe provides numerous financial tools alongside its core payment processing platform. One of those tools, Stripe Connect, is used by companies such as social media platform operators to pay their users. The new cryptocurrency payment support that was announced today today will become available as part of Stripe Connect.

The startup will initially enable participating companies to pay users in USDC, a stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar. Transactions will be processed using the Polygon network. The Polygon network is a sidechain, or a blockchain that is connected to another blockchain, in this case Ethereum. 

“Payouts will take place over the Polygon network, which we chose for its low fees, speed, integration with Ethereum, and broad wallet compatibility,” Stripe crypto product manager Karan Sharma explained in a blog post. “Once creators receive their earnings, they can hold their balance on Polygon, or choose to bridge to Ethereum and exchange it into another currency.”

Over time, Stripe plans to add support for additional cryptocurrency payment methods. The company intends to make Stripe Connect, the service through which it’s offering the cryptocurrency support, available in more than 120 countries by year’s end.

With today’s update, Stripe is returning to the cryptocurrency segment four years after discontinuing support for bitcoin on its platform. The move comes as other major financial technology providers are also increasing their focus on this segment. 

Mastercard Inc. recently partnered with Coinbase Global Inc. to let the latter company’s customers purchase nonfungible tokens using Mastercard payment cards. Visa Inc. detailed in January that, during the first quarter of its 2022 fiscal year, customers used cards linked to cryptocurrency wallets to make payments worth more than $2.5 billion. Visa also stated that it plans to continue growing its presence in the cryptocurrency market.

Image: Stripe