Stripe Acquire Privy and Shopify Launch Stablecoin Payments

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Introduction

Welcome to the Tokenized newsletter, brought to you by the creators of the Tokenized Podcast; Simon Taylor of Fintech Brainfood and Pet Berisha of Sporting Crypto, written by Jeremy Batchelder.

We are the newsletter for institutions that need help preparing for a Tokenized future.

We run through the headlines every week, what it means for you and a market readout. Always with an institutional, business-focused perspective. 

Join us every week as we meet your Tokenization needs.

Stories You Can't Miss 📰

🚀 Stripe's $1.1B+ Crypto Infrastructure Play: Bridge + Privy = Developer Dominance

Stripe has completed its second major crypto acquisition, purchasing wallet-as-a-service provider Privy for an undisclosed sum, following their $1.1 billion acquisition of stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge.

Key Points:

• Bridge acquisition ($1.1B) provides Stripe with comprehensive stablecoin payment processing capabilities, allowing businesses to handle crypto transactions with the same simplicity as traditional payments

• Privy acquisition adds wallet-as-a-service functionality, enabling developers to integrate wallet creation, balance management, and transaction signing through simple API calls

• The combined infrastructure allows any marketplace, fintech, or platform to offer crypto wallets and stablecoin accounts to users without technical complexity

The Tokenized Take:

• Infrastructure convergence: Stripe is assembling the complete tech stack needed for mainstream crypto adoption - from stablecoin rails (Bridge) to user experience (Privy) - all wrapped in developer-friendly APIs

• The API-first crypto future: By making crypto integration as simple as adding a payment processor, Stripe could accelerate institutional adoption across thousands of businesses already in their ecosystem

• Beyond payments strategy: This positions Stripe not just as a payment processor but as the infrastructure layer enabling any business to leverage crypto rails for global settlement and financial services

💳 Coinbase and Shopify Bring USDC Payments to Millions of Merchants

Coinbase has partnered with Shopify to enable USDC payments on Base across millions of global storefronts, marking a major step toward mainstream crypto commerce adoption.

Key Points:

• Global rollout: Early access launches today, with expansion to all Shopify Payments merchants worldwide later in 2025

• Seamless integration: Merchants require no additional setup - USDC payments automatically become available with zero foreign exchange fees on cross-border transactions

• Consumer incentives: US customers will receive 1% cash back when paying with USDC, at no cost to merchants

• Open protocol: The new smart contract and commerce payments protocol is open source and permissionless, enabling any developer to integrate USDC payments

The Tokenized Take:

• Scale matters: Shopify powers millions of merchants including major brands like SKIMS and BarkBox, instantly creating crypto payment infrastructure at unprecedented scale

• UX breakthrough: By removing merchant setup complexity and offering familiar checkout experiences, this partnership eliminates traditional barriers to crypto commerce adoption

• Infrastructure play: The open-source protocol creates reusable rails for the broader ecosystem, potentially becoming the standard for stablecoin commerce payments

Stablecorner ⚖️ → The Developer Infrastructure War: Why Stripe's Double Down Changes Everything

The convergence of traditional payments infrastructure with crypto rails is accelerating at an unprecedented pace. As Davis Hart from Solana Labs observed in the latest episode of Tokenized Podcast, Stripe's acquisition strategy represents something much bigger than individual product capabilities:

"This feels like the sort of AWS, Azure, Google cloud, what they did for all of that infrastructure, backend infrastructure. And it does feel like what Stripe is doing here is starting to build the sort of AWS version of these like financial building blocks."

Bridge + Privy = The Complete Stack

The strategic brilliance of Stripe's dual acquisition becomes clear when you understand the complementary nature of these platforms. Bridge provides the regulated financial plumbing - the licensed pipes through which fiat can move into stablecoins and back. Privy delivers the account infrastructure that enables any application to embed wallet functionality without the complexity of key management or custody concerns.

As Dan Mottice from Beam explained, neither company could deliver a complete solution in isolation: "Self-custody wallets in isolation are a big nothing burger, right? You can't do much with them unless you have licensed pipe that can get value into them."

The Self-Custody Innovation

What makes this particularly compelling is Privy's focus on self-custodial embedded wallets. Unlike traditional custodial solutions that require extensive licensing and regulatory compliance in each jurisdiction, self-custodial wallets offer a potential path for global companies to offer wallet services without becoming money transmitters themselves.

This represents a fundamental shift from the early crypto wallet experience. Instead of forcing users to download separate crypto applications and manage seed phrases, developers can now embed wallet functionality directly into existing applications - turning any mobile app into a potential stablecoin wallet.

Beyond Payments: The Platform Play

Stripe's vision extends far beyond simply processing stablecoin transactions. They're building infrastructure that enables every business to leverage crypto rails without technical complexity. For developers, this means the ability to think about money in "a singular global sense" rather than navigating dozens of different jurisdictions, card network rules, and banking relationships.

The implications are staggering. As Hart noted, traditional global payments infrastructure requires hundreds of engineers and business development professionals. Stripe's integrated approach could abstract away that complexity behind familiar APIs that developers already trust, potentially accelerating institutional adoption across thousands of businesses already in their ecosystem.

📰 Some More News:

🏦 Tokenization, Stablecoins & Finance

• Ondo Finance Debuts $693M Treasury Token on XRP Ledger Amid Soaring RWA Trend (Read more here)

• PayPal Brings Its Stablecoin to Stellar for Cross-Border Remittances, Payments Financing (Read more here)

• Sam Altman’s World Chain Adds Native USDC Stablecoin and Circle’s Cross-Chain Service (Read more here)

• Tokenized money market funds could be the next ‘killer app’ (Read more here)

• Highnote Partners with BVNK to Launch 24x7 Real-Time Stablecoin Funding for Card Programs (Read more here)

🤑 Funding and M&A

• Tether Acquires Strategic Stake in Elemental Altus to Deepen Push Into Gold and Hard Asset-Backed Financial Infrastructure (Read more here)

• Stablecoin Clearing Startup Ubyx Raises $10M Round Backed by Galaxy, Coinbase, Others (Read more here)

💼 Government & Policy

• Jack Ma's Ant International Seeks Stablecoin Licenses in Hong Kong, Singapore: Bloomberg (Read more here)

Simon’s Market Readout 💬 

Meet JPMD - the “Stablecoin like” deposit token.

It’s fascinating:

- Backed by deposits 
- token on the Base network (the Ethereum L2 built by Coinbase). 
- Positioned as an alternative to stablecoins “JPMD” is a deposit token 
- Designed to offer many of the benefits of being on chain, but being linked to commercial bank money (which offers FDIC insurance). 

This token is “permissioned” (only available to JP Morgan’s institutional clients). They expect it to be used for on-chain digital asset settlement and cross border payments.

Here’s my take

🧠 This is aimed at corporate treasurers who are stablecoin curious. 

Unquestionably, JP Morgan will have been getting the questions:

“Will you support stablecoins?”

“Can I use stablecoins through you?”

This is their answer.

🧠 This is a compelling pitch to large corporations. Kinexsys + JPMD offers many of the benefits of stablecoins + backwards compatibility with the banking system.

🧠The downside of Kinexsys is that it is closed loop.

- Kinexsys moves TRILLIONS annually, cross-border, 24/7 (it's actually insane)
- But it's like having the world's fastest car that only works on one highway
- Stablecoins work everywhere. That's the point.

🧠 Stablecoins are a bottom-up alternative that has expanded the TAM of payments. 

That’s why Stripe is investing so heavily, and volume growth is explosive.

🧠 Why launch JPMD on base if they have Kinexsys? JPMD is intended for wider use than institutional. 

Over time, JPMD could compete with USDC or USDT for dollar usage as onchain finance grows in consumer and commercial payments use cases.

🧠 Every other bank will now try to copy this. 

They’re getting the same stablecoin questions from their clients and will wake up to this headline.

Tweet of the Week 🐤 

From: @Privy

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