Stripe Boosts Crypto Push With Valora Team Acquisition

This latest development is part of Stripe’s push into stablecoin-powered payments and mobile-first Web3 experiences. At the same time, tokenization platform Securitize strengthened its regulatory and product strategy by hiring former PayPal executive Jerome Roche, who helped lead PayPal’s digital-asset initiatives. Both moves shed some light on the accelerating momentum in the US for blockchain-based financial infrastructure. Stripe is betting on stablecoin rails for global payments, while Securitize argues that tokenized securities can thrive domestically under existing SEC-regulated frameworks. 

Stripe Accelerates Web3 Plans

Payments giant Stripe strengthened its push into crypto by acquiring the team behind Valora, just one day after unveiling the public testnet for its new stablecoin-centric blockchain, Tempo. The move is one of Stripe’s biggest steps yet in rebuilding its crypto strategy, giving the company a team with deep experience in mobile-first Web3 applications and global stablecoin payments.

Valora CEO Jackie Bona confirmed that the entire team will join Stripe to support its growing blockchain initiatives. Although Stripe has not specified exactly what the team will work on, the decision means that there is a clear intention to integrate seasoned Web3 talent into its stablecoin and payments roadmap. 

Bona explained that both Valora and Stripe share a conviction that stablecoins can expand access to the global economy, and said the acquisition allows Valora’s team to contribute its mobile-native expertise to a platform with massive reach. Valora was launched in 2021 after spinning out of Celo developer cLabs, and originally raised $20 million in Series A funding to build a mobile app enabling users to store and transact stablecoins and other crypto assets across Celo, Ethereum, Base, Optimism and Arbitrum. Its team also developed a Web3 launchpad focused on mobile-friendly app deployment.

While Valora’s app will continue operating, its long-term development will be handed back to cLabs, indicating a transition of talent rather than technology. Bona said the team saw firsthand how stablecoins can promote economic opportunity worldwide and concluded that joining Stripe would accelerate that mission.

The acquisition is now part of the growing momentum behind Stripe’s blockchain ambitions. After years of experimenting in and out of the crypto space, Stripe re-emerged with Tempo—a new layer-1 chain built with Paradigm—which is a high-performance network for stablecoin payments. Tempo’s testnet launched just a day before the acquisition, and drew attention for making it possible for developers to spin up stablecoins directly in the browser with minimal technical overhead.

Securitize Hires PayPal Veteran

Securitize is also advancing its mission to bring tokenized equities deeper into the US market with talent from other companies. In fact, Securitize appointed PayPal executive Jerome Roche as its new general counsel. 

Roche previously played a key role in PayPal’s digital-asset expansion, including the launch of the PayPal USD (PYUSD) stablecoin. He is now expected to help steer Securitize’s regulatory and product strategy as tokenization gains traction across traditional finance.

The company used the announcement to push back against the belief that tokenized securities are better suited for overseas markets due to regulatory restrictions in the United States. CEO Carlos Domingo said in an interview that Securitize’s experience proves the opposite, and argued that tokenized assets can be issued, sold, and held by US investors within a clear and compliant regulatory framework. Domingo explained that these products are not synthetic or derivative-like but are real securities recorded on-chain and supported by SEC-regulated infrastructure, including a registered transfer agent, broker-dealer, and fund administrator.

Securitize’s position sheds some light on the growing optimism about tokenization in the US, particularly due to rising institutional interest in real-world assets. The company pointed out that operating tokenized securities domestically is not only possible but scalable at institutional quality, as more issuers explore blockchain rails for settlement, ownership recording, and transparent asset movement.

The news follows Securitize’s recent regulatory approval in the European Union, which allows it to operate as an investment company and run a trading and settlement system across the bloc. This dual US–EU regulatory footprint makes Securitize one of the first platforms able to offer fully compliant digital securities infrastructure in both of the major markets. 

Roche is proud of this progress, and said  modern ledger technology is enabling more efficient financial operations but has to stay aligned with legal guardrails to succeed globally.

Momentum for tokenization in the United States is growing more broadly. Just a day before Securitize’s announcement, the US Securities and Exchange Commission ended its investigation into Ondo Finance, which is another major tokenization platform. Ondo predicted that tokenized securities are on track to become a core component of US capital markets.