Bitcoin Comes to Influential Payments Startup Stripe

Stripe, the intriguing startup that helps drive payments on everything from Facebook to Lyft, is now handling bitcoin.

The company made the long-awaited announcement with the launch of a microsite this week. Basically, any business using Stripe can immediately sign up to accept the bitcoin digital currency, and Stripe will charge 0.5 percent on each successful bitcoin transaction.

The digital payment startup begantesting its bitcoin tools back in Marchwith a beta program, and it conducted transactions in up to 60 different countries during this period. Now, the company is rolling things out to everyone.

The move is another shot in the arm for bitcoin, which promises to reinvent how money is moved and stored online but has lost some mindshare in recent months after, well, a bit too much hype.

Stripe helps drive payments on Facebook and Twitter. It dovetails with Apple Pay, the new mobile payments tool on the iPhone. And it underpins online ride-hailing startup Lyft and the instant grocery-delivery service Instacart. More recently, Kickstarter announced it was dropping Amazon Payments in favor of Stripes digital payment services.

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Bitcoin Comes to Influential Payments Startup Stripe