Stripe’s Big Crypto Spending Push: Targeting 100+ Countries!
Payments company Stripe aims to offer its card programs in more than 100 countries by the end of 2026 to expand spending with stablecoin balances through cards.
Henri Stern, who leads Stripe’s stablecoin and crypto operations, outlined the company’s global expansion plan in an interview with CoinDesk. Its current customers include crypto exchange Kraken, financial technology company Ramp, and payments app Morse.
How will stablecoins make their way into everyday shopping?
Stripe is combining its existing card-issuing service with Bridge’s stablecoin infrastructure. The goal is to add digital dollars as another option to the payment products businesses already use.
This setup could reduce the need for companies like Ramp to rebuild banking and payment connections in each market when expanding their corporate cards to different countries. Kraken is exploring ways for customers to spend from accounts where they hold digital assets.
According to Stern, Stripe’s overall card business has issued more than 400 million cards since 2018 and handles hundreds of billions of dollars in transaction volume. The expansion of stablecoin cards will build on this existing infrastructure.
Stablecoin card spending tripled in a year
According to Paymentscan data cited in the report, card spending with stablecoins reached about $1.2 billion last month. That figure, triple the amount from a year earlier, covers the stablecoin card market as a whole.
Stripe’s plan comes as stablecoin use is beginning to extend beyond crypto trading and cross-border transfers to everyday shopping. Stern says the company does not want to be tied to a single stablecoin or blockchain.
A payment system not tied to a single network
Stripe is also working on the payments-focused Tempo blockchain, which it is developing with Paradigm, in addition to Bridge and wallet infrastructure company Privy. The company is also among the founding investors in Open Standard, which is developing the Open USD stablecoin.
According to Stern, these products should work together so customers can choose the components that suit their needs without having to get all their services from Stripe. The company is also exploring tokenized deposits and use cases for decentralized finance, though stablecoins remain the focus of its work.