This $95 Billion Company Is Getting Back Into Crypto

October 13, 2021       /       Unchained Daily       /       Laura Shin

Daily Bits ✍️✍️✍️

• SEC Commissioner Caroline Crenshaw spoke out againsta safe harbor for token offerings in the US; SEC Commissioner Allison Herren Lee is worried about privately funded crypto unicorns

• Phillip Hammond, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer, believes the UK is at risk of falling behind global rivals unless regulators help embrace digital assets.

• Binance announced a $1 billion crypto growth fund for blockchain development.

• Coinbase announced a waitlist for an NFT marketplace.

• FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried is stepping down as the head of Alameda Research.

• Celsius raised $400 million at a $3 billion valuation amidst regulatory scrutiny.

• Based on data from The Block, it does not appear that retail traders are driving Bitcoin’s recent price surge.

• The developers of Bored Ape Yacht Club, one of the most popular NFT collections, signed with longtime music manager Guy Oseary for future media appearances across film, TV, music, and video games.

• XDEFI Wallet, a MetaMask-like chrome wallet extension, made its debut yesterday.

What Do You Meme?

What’s Poppin’?

Yesterday, Stripe, a traditional payment processor recently valued at $95 billion, posted four new job openings titled “Staff Engineer, Crypto.” It appears the team will be led by Guillaume Poncin, who tweeted that he is “hiring engineers and designers to build the future of Web3 payments.”

According to the job listings, originally reported by CoinDesk, “crypto is a brand new team at Stripe,” focused on creating “better building blocks to accept payments, move funds, exchange between fiat and crypto.”

The latest move by Stripe is a reentry to the crypto space. The payments company was an early supporter of the crypto space, becoming the first major payments company to accept Bitcoin back in 2014. However, Stripe ended support for BTC acceptance in 2018, citing decreasing demand from customers.

Details are currently slim on Stripe’s crypto game plan. The job posts decline to specify which cryptocurrencies Stripe will be working on or what aspects of blockchain technology Stripe will be attempting to leverage. That being said, earlier this year, Stripe’s CEO John Collison described crypto as a “very exciting” tool in solving the issue of cross-border transactions, perhaps hinting at where Stripe’s focus will be.

Recommended Reads

• SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce on bringing clarity to crypto regulation in the US:

• The Defiant on whether DAOs should pay taxes:

• Into The Block’s Lucas Outumuro on Bitcoin in Q4:

On The Pod…

Visa Is Building Infrastructure for NFTs, Smart Contracts, and L2s. Why? 

Cuy Sheffield, Visa’s head of crypto, discusses Visa’s crypto game plan, stablecoin regulation, NFTs, and more. Show highlights:

• Cuy’s background and his journey down the crypto rabbit hole
• how Visa and cryptocurrency can coexist
• why crypto companies and fintech companies are similar
• what Visa is trying to solve for consumers regarding cryptocurrencies
• how cross-chain payment infrastructure would work
• why Visa requires enhanced diligence for crypto companies
• what countries can learn from stablecoins when building CBDCs
• why Visa is creating a universal payment channel for CBDCs and other cryptocurrencies
• why Visa chose USDC to begin making payments with
• the two main reasons why stablecoins are used (hint: it’s not for buying cups of coffee)
• how cryptocurrency is changing financial education and inclusion
• how crypto’s open-source ethos is helping underserved and emerging markets build financial infrastructure
• why NFTs are Cuy’s favorite topic
• how NFTs level the playing field for black artists (and artists in general)
• why Visa purchased a CryptoPunk and how other businesses could leverage NFTs

Book Update

You can purchase it here: http://bit.ly/cryptopians