Stripe Calls Out ‘Giant Leap’ Into Stablecoins and AI

Stripe has launched what it calls a “major expansion” of its money movement capabilities.

It’s part of a larger product rollout by the financial services company on Wednesday (May 28), with Stripe also introducing tools to make it easier to trade internationally, while also touting what Stripe says is the world’s first artificial intelligence (AI) foundation model for payments.

“We’re on the cusp of two giant leaps for the economy: stablecoins and AI,” Stripe cofounder John Collison said, according to the company’s press release. “Stablecoins are the underdog that everyone’s sleeping on, and AI is on the cusp of rewiring how commerce takes place online through agentic transactions. Our intent is to pull the future forward for all of you, building on Stripe.”

According to the news release, Stripe’s new offerings now allow businesses in the U.K. to hold, manage and spend from balances in multiple currencies in their Stripe account, and pay out to third parties in 50 countries with just an email address.

Businesses can now make cross-border sales more easily with 25 new payment methods (including UPI in India and Brazil’s Pix).

As for the foundation model for payments, Stripe says this offering “captures hundreds of subtle signals that previous AI models couldn’t,” and has increased Stripe’s detection rate for card testing attacks on large businesses from 59% to 97% virtually overnight.

Meanwhile, PYMNTS wrote last month about Stripe’s efforts to obtain a special banking charter, and what that means for the larger payments space.

“In the current landscape where payment processors want to maximize operations by minimizing costs, while expanding their business models, the lure of processing transactions directly may nudge other acquirers to seek special bank charters, too,” that report said.

As PYMNTS wrote in an exclusive report, Stripe’s application for a Merchant Acquirer Limited Purpose Bank (MALPB) charter has been accepted by the state of Georgia’s Department of Banking and Finance, paving the way to obtain direct membership in the U.S. with Visa and Mastercard and to process payments without a sponsoring bank (known as a BIN sponsor).

“That last point — the ability to process payments directly — allows the acquirer to have a more significant financial stake in processing debit and credit card transactions for merchants, as it saves money on the bank fees that would be paid to banking partners,” the report added.

“Stripe had noted to PYMNTS that it would not look to displace banking relationships it has already forged.”