Jess Houlgrave, Checkout.com's head of crypto strategy. Photo illustration: Gabriella Turrisi/Axios. Photo: Louise Yeowart
Payments shops' deep embrace of crypto is a sign of things to come that the average person might never notice.
Why it matters: Mainstream crypto adoption is often talked about in terms of the masses transacting in bitcoin for everyday purchases. But what if crypto makes its way into backend payment processing that everyone uses, but doesn't spend much time thinking about?
Context: Behind every e-commerce transaction is a payments shop like Checkout.com.
Between the lines: The line between fintech and crypto starts to blur in payments.
The big picture: Houlgrave doesn't think legacy payments infrastructure will be made obsolete by crypto rails. Rather: "We'll see these two payment systems converging."
Zoom in: The most crucial factor for crypto compared to legacy fiat payment processing is availability, says Houlgrave.
Of note: Checkout.com settles the stablecoin USD Coin, to be specific.
State of play: Checkout's competition in payments has also taken the crypto plunge. Stripe and PayPal launched their respective crypto services this year, in spite of the crypto winter and broader economic gloom.
The intrigue: Fortune's Jeff John Roberts contends that payments is the real reason Elon Musk bought Twitter, citing his longstanding ambition to disintermediate ACH, the electronic bank-to-bank payment system.
What's next: A payout feature.
The bottom line: "The holy grail for payments — take crypto out of it — as soon as the transaction goes through, that money is in my account."
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