In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Stripe co-founders Patrick and John Collison shared insights into their decision to stop supporting Bitcoin payments in early 2018, and expressed a willingness to reverse that decision in the future.
Declining Use of Bitcoin as a Payment Method
When asked whether the move would leave Stripe “on the wrong side of history,” Patrick Collison replied, “We’re absolutely open to revisiting this.” He emphasized that the decision stems from a fundamental question for the Bitcoin community: “Whether they want to optimize Bitcoin for being a payment method, or for being a form of digital gold, a store of value.”
“At the time we made our decision, it was trending towards being a digital store of value – I think that’s a valuable thing to have exist in the world,” Patrick said. “It just works less well for our use case, and this wasn’t a decision where we wanted to be the arbiter. We were just looking at the data, and it was declining rapidly in use as a payment method. If it starts increasing again as a payment method, then sure, great, we’ll go back and we’ll add it.”
Bitcoin as Digital Gold vs. Payment Tool
John Collison echoed his brother, noting that “the speed and cost of transactions on the Bitcoin network was the main issue.” He added: “Our determination was that bitcoin is not a good payment method, which is a very different discussion than cryptocurrencies generally.”
The Collison brothers also addressed the broader crypto landscape. John remarked that “there is a ton of promise that has not actually been shown in real-world applications yet, and while we are waiting for those real-world applications, I think people are getting a little distracted by some of the hype.” He criticized vanity projects: “I see tons of companies getting distracted by putting this database on the blockchain, because people are not really weathered in the technical details.”
The interview, published in 2018, remains relevant today as Bitcoin’s payment adoption has been partially addressed by Layer 2 solutions like the Lightning Network. Stripe has since expanded its crypto support—for instance, enabling USDC settlements in 2022—but has not yet reinstated Bitcoin payments. The founders’ stance reflects a pragmatic approach: digital assets must serve a clear commercial use case to gain adoption by payment infrastructure companies.