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Swedish fintech innovator Klarna is exploring cryptocurrency integration within its platform, signaling a strategic pivot amid preparations for a prospective U.S. IPO.
$15B IPO and the Possibility of Crypto
In a Feb. 8 announcement via X, CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski affirmed Klarna’s willingness to embrace crypto while explicitly excluding digital assets from its signature “buy-now-pay-later” (BNPL) offerings.
“Ok. I give up. Klarna and [I] will embrace crypto! More to come,” Siemiatkowski posted. “Yes, I know! This post will get a huge sigh and 2 views. But it still feels historic. [The] last large fintech in the world to embrace it. Someone had to be last. And that’s a milestone as well of some sort,” the Swedish fintech firm’s boss added.
While conceding Klarna’s delayed entry into the digital currency arena, he called for collaborative ideation, urging experts to propose methods to harness its vast network of 85 million consumers and $100 billion annual payment flow. “Btw all crypto fans,” Siemiatkowski continued. “Tell me what we should do with it. We have 85 m users worldwide. 100 bn of volume. Over 0.5 m merchants. About 30% of [the] volume is debit not credit. Over 1 million cards. I have some ideas but [am] keen to hear more.”
The founder of Metallicus and Metal Pay, Marshall Hayner responded to the Klarna executive’s post. “You should integrate into the Metal ecosystem,” Hayner remarked. “Launch a stablecoin, Klarna subnet, and get it into XMD basket, add defi lending and trading with Metal X. Hit me up.” Another individual replied: “Embrace Bitcoin, don‘t bother with Altcoins.”
Nikhil Chandhok, Circle’s product and technology lead, emphasized that stablecoin systems could streamline payment operations more effectively than Klarna’s existing infrastructure. “You can settle with your merchants in stablecoin. Probably be faster than what you are doing now,” Chandhok wrote. You can let users connect their crypto wallets to Klarna to make the payments. International users looking to use Klarna will then have a way to do that.”