The Swedish fintech -gigantic Klarna has finally succumbed to pressure from his 80+ million user base to offer crypto services. The development comes when the company is preparing for its long -awaited initial public offer (IPO) in the US, aimed at April with a valuation of a maximum of $ 15 billionMaking it one of the greatest offers of the year.
Sebastian Siemiatkowski, CEO of Klarna, posted on X“Ok. I give up. Klarna and I will embrace crypto! More coming … Last big fintech in the world to embrace it. Someone had to be the last one.” He added:
“By the way, all crypto fans. Tell me what we should do with it? We have 85 m users worldwide. 100 billion volume. More than 0.5 m merchants. About 30% of the volume is deit, not credit. More than 1 million cards. I have some ideas, but would like to hear more! “
The news of Klarna’s Crypto company led to intense interest among investors and builders in the room, with answers from “just add bitcoin to your balance”, to offers to build within specific ecosystems such as Cosmos and Solana.
Co-founder and chairman of Safello AB, a leading crypto exchange in the Nordics, Frankschuil, commentary:
“Klarna has a rating of $ 14.6 billion and $ 96 billion GMV in 2023. This influences its 85m+ users and the wider fintech room. Crypto transactions can integrate with its BNPL model, so that billions in digital assets can be processed. “
He suggested that some potential applications for Klarna Crypto could integrate as a payment option, so that sellers can accept payments via the Klarna platform and improve the Klarna Mobile app with a built-in crypto-portion function.
Klarna was founded in 2005 and became the most valuable startup in Europe in 2021 after a fundraising round appreciated it at $ 46 billion. The decision to embrace crypto can be a signal for other resistant traditions, which proves that it is never too late to go into space and to unlock potential new roads for growth.
