Klarna expands into peer-to-peer payments, but is this just a precursor to its cross-border plans powered by stablecoins?
Klarna has taken another step to becoming a fully fledged digital bank, launching peer-to-peer (P2P) payments across 13 European countries.
Klarna users in Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and the UK will be able to send money to friends and family using a phone number, email address, QR code or saved contact.
Announcing the feature on January 14, the Swedish fintech said the new service is designed to be “as simple as handing someone cash, with the protection of a regulated bank”. While the payments will initially only support transfers between Klarna users, the company said it plans to extend P2P payments to non-Klarna customers and cross-border transactions.
The company has rolled out new products and services at pace in recent months, with each launch pushing Klarna further into everyday digital banking.
In October 2025, Klarna unveiled a new debit card and digital wallet in the UK, pitched as part of a broader effort to restore trust which the company argues traditional banks have eroded.
The digital wallet called Klarna Balance allows customers to hold e-money, add and withdraw funds, receive refunds and earn cashback on selected purchases.
The Klarna Card, powered by Visa, uses debit by default but allows consumers to apply a spending plan at checkout if they choose to use credit. Ahead of its launch, the card attracted significant interest, with reports in June 2025 suggesting around five million consumers had joined the waitlist.
The P2P launch appears to be following the same strategy, as Klarna Co-founder and CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said customers are increasingly frustrated with the cost and friction of traditional banking.
“With peer-to-peer payments we’re making it even easier to manage all of your payments through Klarna, now including small transfers, making managing your money quicker, easier and cheaper,” he said.
Why stablecoins matter to Klarna’s next move
While Klarna’s P2P payments will run on traditional banking rails to begin with, the launch also highlights the company’s longer term ambitions around stablecoins and cross-border settlement.
Klarna has previously noted it is exploring stablecoin-based payments as a way to reduce the cost and friction of international transfers, an area it believes remains underserved by existing infrastructure.
According to the company, cross-border payments generate around $120bn in annual fees, much of it driven by slow settlement, limited transparency and reliance on correspondent banking networks.
This view is increasingly shared across the payments industry, proven in a recent Payment Expert analysis piece, in which Deepak Gupta, EVP of Product at Volante Technologies, argued stablecoins offer capabilities traditional rails struggle to deliver at a global level.
“Regulated stablecoins and tokenised deposits together enable 24/7 settlement, programmable liquidity and instant reconciliation across currencies and time zones,” Gupta wrote, stating while domestic real-time payment systems have advanced rapidly, cross-border corridors remain inefficient and costly.
He suggests stablecoins could account for a growing share of cross-border payment volumes over the coming decade, particularly as regulatory clarity improves in Europe.
This creates an opportunity for companies like Klarna to bypass parts of the legacy payments stack while offering faster and cheaper international transfers, aligning with the fintech’s message of doing things differently than traditional banks.
