Stripe, the payments infrastructure company valued at approximately $159 billion, has re-entered the cryptocurrency space with a strategy focused squarely on stablecoins and enterprise settlement. After dropping Bitcoin payment support in 2018 due to volatility and slow transaction speeds, the company’s return is not a reversal but a recalibration. Stripe is now building the infrastructure for a payments layer in which stablecoins function as programmable settlement instruments rather than speculative assets. The company’s 2025 annual letter, published on 24 February 2026, declared that “it may be a crypto winter, ... (full story)