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Klarna, the global digital bank and flexible payments provider, has launched KlarnaUSD, its first stablecoin and a significant shift for a company whose CEO was once a vocal crypto skeptic. The move comes as McKinsey estimates stablecoin transactions now top $27 trillion a year — and could overtake legacy payment networks before the decade is out. 1
The move makes Klarna the first bank to launch a stablecoin on Tempo, a new independent blockchain started by Stripe and Paradigm that's purpose-built for payments. With cross-border payments generating an estimated $120 billion 2 in transaction fees annually, Klarna sees stablecoins as a way to dramatically reduce costs for both consumers and merchants.
"With 114 million customers and $112 billion in annual GMV, Klarna has the scale to change payments globally: with Klarna's scale and Tempo's infrastructure, we can challenge old networks and make payments faster and cheaper for everyone," says Sebastian Siemiatkowski, co-founder and CEO of Klarna. "Crypto is finally at a stage where it is fast, low-cost, secure, and built for scale. This is the beginning of Klarna in crypto, and I'm excited to work with Stripe and Tempo to continue to shape the future of payments."
KlarnaUSD is built on Open Issuance by Bridge, a leading stablecoin infrastructure platform and Stripe company, and will launch on Tempo's mainnet in 2026. It is currently live on their testnet and not publicly available, giving Klarna early access to its infrastructure for advanced testing, prototyping, and integration. The partnership deepens an already extensive relationship between Klarna and Stripe, which spans payments infrastructure across Klarna's 26 markets globally.
This is the beginning of Klarna publicly sharing crypto initiatives. We will reveal our next partner in the coming weeks.
Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of applicable securities laws. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements regarding our future financial performance, business strategy, growth objectives, market opportunities, operational plans, including the implementation of stablecoin or other crypto offerings, the timing of their availability to our consumers and their anticipated features and benefits. Words such as "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "will," "may," "could," "estimate," and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements.
These forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties, and assumptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied, including risks related to:
- Our ability to retain and grow consumer and merchant relationships;
- Competition and technological developments;
- Regulatory compliance and licensing requirements;
- Our ability to achieve expected benefits from our funding arrangements;
- Credit risk management and funding availability;
- General economic conditions and market volatility; and
- Our ability to expand into new markets and products.
Forward-looking statements reflect our views as of the date of this release and are based on information currently available to us. We undertake no obligation to update any forward-looking statements, except as required by law. Actual results may differ materially from those anticipated. Investors should not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements and should review the risk factors in our filings with the SEC for a more complete discussion of risks.
1 https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/the-stable-door-opens-how-tokenized-cash-enables-next-gen-payments
2 https://www.jpmorgan.com/kinexys/documents/mCBDCs-Unlocking-120-billion-value-in-cross-border-payments.pdf?utm_source=chatgpt.com
Category: Partnership News
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