Swedish fintech firm Klarna has announced the launch of its first stablecoin, KlarnaUSD, positioning the company as the first bank to issue a stablecoin on Tempo.
Tempo is an independent blockchain developed by Stripe and Paradigm, designed specifically for payment transactions.
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KlarnaUSD is built on Open Issuance stablecoin infrastructure platform by Bridge, a Stripe firm, and is set to be introduced on Tempo’s mainnet next year.
According to McKinsey’s estimation, annual stablecoin transaction volumes have reached $27tn, with projections suggesting that stablecoins may surpass traditional payment networks before the end of the decade.
Klarna noted that cross-border payments currently generate around $120bn in transaction fees each year, and the company views stablecoins as a means to significantly decrease these costs for merchants as well as consumers.
Klarna said in a release that, at present, KlarnaUSD is live only on Tempo’s testnet and is not available to the public. This allows Klarna early access to the infrastructure for advanced testing, prototyping, as well as integration.
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By GlobalDataThe collaboration is said to deepen Klarna’s existing relationship with Stripe, which already covers payments infrastructure across 26 global markets of Klarna.
In its release, Klarna said: “This is the beginning of Klarna publicly sharing crypto initiatives. We will reveal our next partner in the coming weeks.”
Klarna CEO and co-founder Sebastian Siemiatkowski said: “With 114 million customers and $118bn in annual gross merchandise value (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.
“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.”
Recently, Klarna payment options on Apple Pay have become available to customers in Spain, Denmark, and Sweden.
