Leading Stripe Crypto

Today, I’m excited to step in to lead crypto and stablecoins at Stripe, in addition to my role at Privy.

In this new role, I will be helping set Stripe’s priorities in the space and build (what we hope to be) the very best stablecoin developer platform: one that is open and complete, modular and cohesive, global by default.

Some background

Wallets (i.e. our core focus at Privy) are central to digital ownership, but they are far more powerful as part of a greater whole, working alongside orchestration (on and offchain), card issuing, asset issuance, etc. I'm excited to help shape these end-to-end experiences at Stripe.

In the last few years, I’ve seen companies fundamentally transform their businesses leveraging internet-native money—including Stripe itself. Stablecoins help organizations become global faster than ever, adopt new business models, and bring more value to their users by embedding financial services—verbs like “hold”, “spend” and “earn”—directly into their products, rather than outsourcing them.

But we have so much more to do. Building with crypto is still way too hard. It requires businesses to rethink their stack and financial flows from the ground up (with little interop with traditional rails), and (too often) relies on untested infra.

Stripe's work

I think Stripe has a unique role to play here. We want to make it surprisingly easy for any fintech, startup or institution–any global business really–to benefit from internet-native rails so they can grow farther, faster. In this work, we expect startups and enterprises alike—crypto-natives and traditional businesses—to drive our roadmap for years to come.

It’s going to be a windy road and I’m sure we’ll make plenty of mistakes but this should not deter us. Ours is a valent technology.

Accordingly, I want to lay out some principles for our work ahead:

1. Focus on utility.

All of our product decisions should be measured by how much value we’re creating for businesses. This means helping companies like Meta pay out to creators all over the world, in real-time; and helping agents find safe ways to hold balances and spend (with Link for instance). We’re not building crypto for crypto’s sake; we exist to create solve real problems for our users.

1. Marry crypto and fiat seamlessly.

To build the best stablecoin platform, we must be excellent at making crypto and fiat interoperable, so customers can find the shortest path to value without having to rip out their entire system (which they have no desire or incentive to do). This has been a major driver of our work with businesses like Ramp who works with Stripe across fiat and stables, using our wallets and cards to fuel their global expansion alongside traditional payment rails.

1. Enable end-to-end experiences, not just point solutions.

Businesses should be able to adopt a simple suite of products, rather than having to stitch together disparate components. Working with Deel to enable payouts for contractors all over the world, we realized we needed to work on every part of the flow–from payouts to storage and rewards on balances.

1. Embrace open systems.

A major part of crypto’s value is that it is built on an open, modular stack. This flexibility is paramount to our work. Stripe itself uses Bridge, Privy, Tempo and Open USD, and we want these systems to work incredibly well together. But we recognize best-in-class tools are extensible so developers can choose whatever components work for them. You know your users best, and your stack should reflect that.

1. Lead with compliance

Security and compliance are an essential—sine qua non conditions—to our work. Money exists within borders, and within a threat landscape. In our crypto work, we leverage Stripe's extensive experience securing financial rails in regulated environments. We are GENIUS-ready, conditionally approved for an OCC national bank trust charter in the US; we have MiCA and EMI licenses in Europe, etc. This is essential to enabling stable workflows for our users.

You know where to find us!

We’re just getting started. Our core commitment is to build with you as true partners, with transparent timelines and clear objectives we set together. We will push hard to help you win, and be open when we cannot serve you.

Across the board, we are responsible for the products we put out and how they operate in given markets.

I’ve never been more hopeful about our opportunity to transform how value moves on the web, and deliver real lift for our users in the process!

HMU if I can help with anything as you build!