Stripe Makes Another Move Into Crypto

Stripe has taken another step into the digital payments space by acqui hiring the team behind Valora, a well known crypto wallet and payments application built on the Celo blockchain. This move adds experienced crypto engineers and product builders to Stripe as the company accelerates its stablecoin strategy.

The acquisition focuses on people rather than technology. The intellectual property and app rights are being returned to cLabs, the core developer organization behind Celo.

What Valora Brings to Stripe

Valora is known for creating user friendly mobile payments built around low cost stablecoin transfers. The team has deep experience in:

• Mobile first financial design

• Stablecoin settlement flows

• Low fee cross border payments

• On chain account abstraction

• Emerging market user experience

These areas directly support Stripe’s long-term interest in building global payment rails that work as smoothly in developing markets as they do in established ones.

Why Stripe Is Targeting Stablecoins

Stripe began reintegrating crypto products earlier this year through USDC based payments. Stablecoins offer instant settlement, predictable fees and global accessibility without requiring end users to manage blockchain complexity.

By strengthening its internal crypto team, Stripe can improve:

• Merchant payment rails

• Cross border payouts

• On ramp and off ramp tooling

• Global remittance flows

• Web3 enabled checkout experiences

The addition of Valora’s talent helps Stripe speed up these initiatives without building everything from scratch.

What Happens to Valora’s App

As part of the transaction, the intellectual property and rights to the Valora application return to cLabs. This means the Valora brand and wallet will continue under the governance of the Celo ecosystem rather than becoming a Stripe product.

This structure allows:

• Stripe to focus on enterprise payments

• cLabs to maintain stewardship of consumer facing tools

• The Celo community to evolve the app independently

• Developers to continue building around existing infrastructure

The acqui hire strengthens both organizations in different ways.

A Signal of Stripe’s Broader Crypto Ambition

Stripe has repeatedly stated that crypto is useful when it improves real world finance. The company is not pursuing speculation products. Instead, it is focusing on areas where stablecoins and tokenized payments reduce friction for businesses and users.

The Valora team fits this philosophy. They have a track record of building practical, mobile friendly payment experiences rather than speculative financial apps.

The move reinforces that Stripe views stablecoins as an important part of the future global payments stack.

What Comes Next

Stripe is expected to expand support for stablecoin payments across more regions and merchant categories. Additional integrations with wallets, fintech apps and global payout partners are likely.

For the Valora team, the transition means their work will influence payment infrastructure at global scale.

The Celo ecosystem, meanwhile, regains control of the Valora IP and can continue building consumer applications around its mobile first blockchain.