Buy-now pay-later firm Klarna has entered the digital asset space by launching a new U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin called KlarnaUSD, with the goal of slashing cross-border payment fees for its 114 million users.

“The move comes as McKinsey estimates stablecoin transactions now top $27 trillion a year — and could overtake legacy payment networks before the decade is out,” said the firm in its announcement.

This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.

It also marks a significant strategic shift for Klarna, whose CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski was previously critical of crypto, calling it a “decentralized Ponzi scheme.”

The KlarnaUSD stablecoin is built on Tempo, a layer 1 blockchain developed by Stripe and Paradigm specifically for payment transactions. It is issued through Bridge, Stripe’s stablecoin infrastructure.

While KlarnaUSD is currently live on Tempo’s testnet, a full mainnet rollout has been planned for 2026.