Buy-now-pay-later firm Klarna has announced a new partnership with Coinbase that lets it raise short‑term funding from institutional investors using the Circle-issued USDC stablecoin, adding crypto-based capital to its existing funding mix of deposits, loans, and commercial paper.

This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.

Klarna will receive funding from institutions in USDC using Coinbase’s digital asset infrastructure as the rails for these transactions. The USDC channel will sit alongside Klarna’s traditional sources of capital rather than replacing them, broadening how it finances its lending and BNPL activities.

Using stablecoins gives Klarna direct access to a new pool of institutional investors that prefer blockchain-based, dollar-like assets for speed and efficient settlement.

“This is an exciting first step into a new way to raise funding,” said Klarna CFO Niclas Neglén.

Last month, Klarna launched its own U.S. dollar–pegged stablecoin, KlarnaUSD, as its entry into crypto, built on Stripe and Paradigm’s Tempo blockchain. KlarnaUSD is scheduled to go live on Tempo’s mainnet in 2026.