During a Money 20/20 Europe panel a question was posed; when it comes to crypto payments, how do we enable consumers and business customers to get their money faster?
Crypto payments, whilst still in their infancy, are becoming an increasingly functional alternative to traditional fiat currency. Fiat to crypto transfers is a process that has yet to be seen whether it can become a lot quicker and seamless, albeit in its short term life.
However, companies such as Wirex have developed the Wirex Wallet that is an all-in-one crypto wallet that can sell, trade and purchase cryptocurrencies that offers a function to transfer fiat currency to crypto for the users payments.
Cyril Mathew, Head of Business and Partnerships of crypto and web3, at Stripe, was a panellist on the Money 20/20 Europe exhibition and he delved into the discussion of how Stripe are providing crypto payment payouts for Twitter users.
“When people mention crypto payments, you automatically assume retail payments and that’s not happening because it doesn’t work just now,” expressed Mathew.
“One of the first things Stripe did is focus on payouts because here’s a useful case study partnering with Twitter is that we have this problem where if I’m a creator/blogger, Stripe was able to payout in 50 countries wherever we had financial partners, but also to conserve the digital GDP. But there’s another 150 countries we couldn’t payout.
“Now with that launch we’re looking to payout in USTC in those countries, but it could be payouts, it could be on and off ramps, there is still that need for fiat to crypto and for cross border payments. We have to look at this holistically and by a use-by-use case.”
Crypto as a market took a huge hit during the recent crypto crash, when Terra Luna and USD collapsed by 98% in valuation and ultimately folded.
Coined ‘Crypto Winter’, Mathew spoke of being involved in a previous crypto crash back in late 2017, when Bitcoin fell by 45% resulting in the entire market to fall.
Sendi Young, the Managing Director of Ripple Europe, a global payments network that has recently dived into distributing crypto payments.
Young goes on to mention the hit on her company and other crypto platforms and how the crypto market can move on and continue to grow.
“We are focused on the long term utility, not the long term volatility in the market,” stated Young.
“Ripple has been around since 2012. It is not the first and won’t be the last, if we have come out of this already we can come back stronger. We always follow the motto of working on the ecosystem, to build, evolve and transport better, and I think that focus will continue to serve us well in regards to this current crypto winter.”
