Stripe says it's open to accepting crypto for payments, three years after ending bitcoin support - CNBC

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Stripe isn't ruling out accepting cryptocurrency as a method of payment in the future, according to co-founder John Collison.

The online payments company ended support for bitcoin payments in 2018, citing the digital coin's notoriety for volatile price swings and a lack of efficiency in making everyday transactions.

"Crypto obviously means a lot of different things to a lot of different people," Collison said at a CNBC-moderated panel at the Fintech Abu Dhabi festival on Tuesday.

Collison said there were some aspects to crypto — such as its use as a speculative investment — that are "not that relevant to what we do at Stripe."

But, he added: "There have been a lot of developments of late with an eye to making cryptocurrencies better and, in particular, scalable and acceptable cost as a payment method."

Asked whether Stripe would start accepting crypto as a method of payment again, Collison said: "We don't yet, but I think it's not implausible that we would."

The company recently formed a team dedicated to exploring crypto and "Web3," a buzzword in tech that refers to a new, decentralized version of the internet.

The effort is being led by Guillaume Poncin, Stripe's head of engineering. Earlier this month, the company appointed Matt Huang, co-founder of crypto-focused venture capital firm Paradigm, to its board of directors.