On Wednesday, Stripe, a major player in global payments, made a big announcement. They’ve officially brought back crypto support after six years of not accepting Bitcoin. The San Francisco-based company is now letting businesses accept USD Coin (USDC) from customers in over 150 countries. Jeff Weinstein, Stripe’s product lead, shared this exciting news on Twitter.

He wrote, “Crypto on Stripe is officially back! We're rolling this out to hundreds of thousands of US businesses today.” There’s more to come, too, as they plan to support additional countries soon.

In April, Weinstein mentioned that Stripe would start with USDC payments across the Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon networks. This move follows in the footsteps of PayPal, which expanded its crypto offerings in 2021. PayPal allows customers to shop at millions of merchants worldwide using its “Checkout With Crypto” feature.

Stripe aims to simplify crypto transactions. They will automatically convert stablecoin payments into fiat currency and settle them in the merchant’s Stripe account. The “Pay with Crypto” feature allows businesses to integrate stablecoin payments using Stripe Checkout, Elements, or the Payment Intents API. They set payment limits at $10,000 per transaction and $100,000 per month, with a transaction fee of 1.5%.

This reintroduction comes after Stripe ended Bitcoin support in 2018. They cited concerns about market volatility, slow transaction speeds, and high fees. Stripe initially started supporting Bitcoin in 2014. They’ve also teamed up with Avalanche to help users access niche crypto products and NFT platforms on that network.

In other news, the government of Palau is testing a blockchain-based savings bond system. This initiative aims to raise funds for critical infrastructure projects. A public review of the digital savings bond platform began this week, although no bonds have been issued yet. Japanese blockchain firm Soramitsu backs this project, stating that proceeds will go towards building bridges, roads, and other public infrastructure.

Meanwhile, Colombian neobank Littio announced a switch from Ethereum to Avalanche. They want to offer customers a more affordable way to hedge against the struggling peso. By working with OpenTrade, a startup that provides stablecoin solutions through tokenization of real assets, Littio hopes to utilize their yield-bearing savings option. To meet growing demand, they plan to transition their holdings from OpenTrade's vaults.

Lastly, Fastex, a crypto exchange, is making strides in crypto compliance. Their Chief Legal Officer, Vardan Khachatryan, spoke about Fastex’s Web3 ecosystem in a recent interview. This ecosystem includes a centralized crypto exchange, an NFT marketplace, the Bahamut Chain, and an upcoming crypto identity product. Khachatryan emphasized that these innovations are shaping the future of compliance in the crypto space.