After staying out of crypto for years, the buy-now-pay-later giant Klarna has been making a flurry of moves in the digital asset space. The latest example came on Friday when the company said it is partnering with the crypto exchange Coinbase to accept stablecoin funds from institutional investors.
Klarna’s business model revolves around supplying consumers with zero-interest loans to buy goods, an arrangement known as buy-now-pay-later, or BNPL. The Swedish firm earns money primarily by charging merchants a small fee to offer its services, and acquires capital via a banking arm that accepts deposits and issues bonds. Its partnership with Coinbase will let institutional investors front capital denominated in stablecoins, a type of cryptocurrency pegged to underlying assets like the U.S. dollar.
“Stablecoin connects us to an entirely new class of institutional investors,” said Niclas Neglén, Klarna’s CFO, in a statement.
Friday’s announcement is the latest foray into crypto from Klarna, which went public in September. In late November, Klarna launched its own stablecoin, KlarnaUSD, on a new blockchain backed by the fintech giant Stripe and the crypto venture capitalist Paradigm. About two weeks later, the company said it was working with the crypto wallet developer Privy, which is owned by Stripe, to work on potential crypto products for its users.
Klarna’s crypto integrations come as more fintechs and banks dabble in stablecoins, which proponents say are a faster and cheaper means to send and receive money than existing financial rails.
On Thursday, the neobank SoFi announced that it was launching its own stablecoin. In early December, Sony’s banking arm said it was exploring the issuance of its own dollar-backed token. And even Block, the fintech that’s historically been a devoted Bitcoin booster, said that it will integrate stablecoins into Cash App, the digital wallet the company owns.
The rush into stablecoins follows a series of landmark moments for the crypto assets over the past year. In February, Stripe closed a $1.1 billion deal to acquire the stablecoin startup Bridge. In June, the stablecoin issuer Circle went public in one of the year’s hottest IPOs. And, in July, President Donald Trump signed into law a new bill that creates a regulatory framework for stablecoins.
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