Stripe Connect announced Twitter as its first business partner, allowing some content creators on the social media network to receive their revenues via crypto-based rails.
The announcement comes amid speculation about Twitter’s future, with Tesla CEO Elon Musk reportedly attempting to take the business private. While Twitter is the first company to work with Stripe on crypto payouts, if Stripe’s pilot with the social media company is successful, others may follow.
“With crypto payouts for Connect, Twitter will make it possible for creators who opt in to have their earnings paid out to a cryptocurrency wallet,” Stripe said in the announcement. “Stripe will handle all crypto-related complexity and operations. No code changes are required, and platforms can avoid taking on the challenges of acquiring, storing, or transferring crypto themselves.”
Stripe will initially enable payouts in USDC, a stablecoin backed by the US dollar, with transactions taking place over the Polygon network. Stripe will eventually support additional rails and currencies.
According to the Crunchbase Unicorn Board, Stripe is the world’s fifth-largest unicorn startup, valued at $95 billion. It’s also the second most valuable unicorn in the US, after only SpaceX, which is valued at $100 billion.