Stripe Launches Stablecoin Subscription Payments
Stripe has expanded its stablecoin payments suite, enabling users to pay for AI tools, SaaS products, and creator content through recurring USDC subscriptions on major blockchains.
Stripe is taking another major step into the crypto economy. The global payment giant announced on October 14 that it will allow US-based businesses to accept stablecoin subscription payments, a move designed to make crypto transactions as seamless as credit card billing.
The new feature lets customers use their crypto wallets to pay for recurring services such as AI subscriptions, software-as-a-service (SaaS) tools, and digital content. Businesses can receive stablecoin payments that settle directly in fiat, manage them alongside traditional payments, and leverage Stripe’s existing billing infrastructure.
Stablecoin Payments Go Mainstream
Under the new rollout, users can subscribe to services using Circle’s USDC stablecoin on the Base and Polygon blockchains. Popular wallets like MetaMask, Coinbase Wallet, Phantom, and Trust Wallet can be connected directly during checkout, offering a smooth crypto payment experience.
Jennifer Lee, Product Manager on Stripe’s crypto team, demonstrated the new integration, showing crypto as an additional payment option next to card and U.S. bank transfers on Stripe Checkout.
To enable recurring billing, Stripe developed smart contracts that eliminate the need for manual transaction approvals. Customers can save their wallet as a payment method and authorize automatic debits, much like setting up a card subscription. The system supports more than 400 crypto wallets.
A Year of Rapid Stablecoin Growth
Stripe first introduced stablecoin payments in October 2024, and the response was immediate. Companies across 70 countries adopted the feature on launch day. In May 2025, Stripe launched Stablecoin Financial Accounts, enabling businesses in over 100 countries to hold and transact in digital dollars. These accounts currently support USDC from Circle and USDB from Bridge, with more stablecoins expected to follow.
Read more: What Are Stablecoins and Their Role in Modern Finance
This global expansion is particularly significant for fast-growing AI companies. According to Stripe, the top 20 AI startups on its platform generate 60% of their revenue from outside the U.S., but traditional cross-border payments are often slow and expensive.
Some companies, like Shadeform, have already shifted about 20% of their payment volume to stablecoins, benefiting from near-instant settlement and roughly 50% lower processing costs.
New Capabilities for Recurring Payments
With the new subscription feature, Stripe aims to better serve the 30% of its business customers that rely on recurring billing models, especially within the AI sector.
Businesses using Stripe can now:
- Let customers pay for subscriptions directly from their crypto wallets
- Settle transactions automatically in fiat
- Manage both fiat and stablecoin payments in a single dashboard
- Integrate the feature with Stripe’s Optimized Checkout Suite and Stripe Billing
- Accept payments through Elements, Checkout, the Payment Intents API, and Payment Links
The feature also supports one-off payments, but for now, transactions are limited to $10,000 per payment and $100,000 per month—a guardrail for large-scale operations.
Alex Mashrabov, CEO of Higgsfield AI, said:
“Stablecoin payments help us reduce our cost of revenue for payments from all around the globe, attract more tech-forward users, and reach folks who don’t have access to other payment methods.”
Strategic Infrastructure Moves
Stripe has been steadily reinforcing its crypto infrastructure throughout 2025. In June, the company acquired wallet startup Privy, enabling it to offer end-to-end crypto payment flows—from wallet creation to settlement and fiat conversion.
In late September, Stripe’s subsidiary Bridge launched Open Issuance, a platform allowing companies to mint and manage their own stablecoins. Businesses can define reserve structures, issue or burn tokens freely, and even earn rewards on holdings.
Bridge CEO Zach Abrams sees Open Issuance as a key enabler for global payments companies looking to build on stablecoin rails.
Earlier in the same month, Stripe also introduced Tempo, its own Layer 1 blockchain designed for high-throughput stablecoin transactions. Unlike traditional blockchains that process between 5 and 1,000 transactions per second, Stripe’s infrastructure can handle 10,000+ TPS, targeting institutional-grade performance.
Tempo is backed by early design partners including Visa, Deutsche Bank, and Standard Chartered. A distinctive feature of the network is its fiat-denominated transaction fees, allowing users to pay gas in stablecoins without dealing with volatile native tokens.
A Competitive Challenge to Banks
Stripe CEO Patrick Collison believes that the growth of stablecoins could reshape the banking landscape. Responding to venture capitalist Nic Carter on X, Collison said that depositors “are going to, and should, earn something closer to a market return on their capital.”
With U.S. savings account yields around 0.40% and EU rates at 0.25%, he argued that traditional banks may be forced to raise deposit rates to remain competitive as stablecoins become more attractive to consumers.
“Cheap deposits are great, but being so consumer-hostile feels to me like a losing position,” Collison said.
Positioning Stablecoins as a Payment Standard
Stripe’s stablecoin strategy goes beyond offering another payment option. By combining on-chain efficiency with its existing fiat settlement and billing tools, the company is positioning stablecoins as a mainstream payment method for digital-first businesses.
The integration of automated smart contracts, global reach, and institutional-grade infrastructure suggests that Stripe is betting heavily on stablecoins as the future backbone of cross-border commerce. For industries like AI and SaaS—where subscriptions dominate revenue models—this could mark a turning point in how digital products are monetized globally.
As competition intensifies between fintechs, stablecoin issuers, and traditional banks, Stripe’s push into programmable money may signal the beginning of a broader shift in payment standards.