Bitcoin gets a boost as payments firm Stripe announces support for the cryptocurrency

There’s good news for the Bitcoin community and retailers with an interest in the virtual currency, after payments firm Stripe announced that it would add support for Bitcoin payments.

Stripe — which is one of the largest companies of its kind, having raised over $120 million in funding — has launched a private beta which includes support for the cryptocurrency, alongside the 135 global currencies that are already covered.

Stripe co-founder and CEO Patrick Collison told Recode that the company has a “positive disposition to Bitcoin” because it is solving “the problems we care about” — namely enabling anyone to pay for goods regardless of whether they own a credit card.

Shopify, Balanced and Overstock are among the retail and payment firms that already support Bitcoin.

➤ Stripe Merchants Will Soon Be Able to Accept Bitcoin Payments [Recode]

Headline image via Antana / Flickr