Stripe, a payment processing company, has announced its plans to introduce global USDC payments this summer, marking its return to cryptocurrency support after ending Bitcoin (BTC) support over six years ago. The president and co-founder of Stripe, John Collison, made the announcement during a presentation. He demonstrated how customers can link their crypto wallets to Stripe and make instant payments using USDC on Solana (SOL) and Ethereum (ETH). Additionally, businesses using Stripe will have the option to offer stablecoin payments to their customers. Stripe had previously supported Bitcoin payments but discontinued the feature in 2018 due to the cryptocurrency’s limited utility in payments. In 2022, the company launched a range of tools and services for cryptocurrency-focused businesses. Collison stated that Stripe now supports various crypto businesses, including exchanges, wallets, and NFT marketplaces, offering services such as pay-ins, payouts, KYC and identity verification, fraud prevention, and more. Stripe also introduced an embeddable fiat-to-crypto onramp for Web3 developers in the same year and started offering a hosted onramp at crypto.link.com in early 2023. USDC is a stablecoin that aims to maintain a 1:1 peg to the US dollar and is currently the second-largest stablecoin by market cap, after USDT.