Kraken Competes with Stripe and Airwallex

This pushes Kraken out of the exchange lane and into the operating layer where fintechs actually move money. Reap gives Kraken card issuance, payout orchestration, and cross border settlement tools that let a fintech keep balances in USDC or USDT, issue cards, pay suppliers or employees, and convert back to fiat when needed. That overlaps with Stripe’s stablecoin infrastructure push and with Airwallex’s business of moving and converting money for global companies.

• Stripe’s edge is horizontal payments software. Bridge extends Stripe from card acquiring into stablecoin accounts, on and off ramps, and programmable money movement. Kraken now offers a similar stablecoin base layer, but starts with exchange liquidity and crypto native treasury flows instead of merchant checkout.
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• Airwallex’s edge is global business operations. It processes most transactions outside SWIFT, serves 150,000 businesses, and has shifted toward cards and payments that let companies collect in one currency, spend in another, and reimburse globally. Reap moves toward that same workflow, especially in Asia and other cross border heavy regions.
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• The real wedge is that stablecoin infrastructure and fintech infrastructure are converging. Reap described B2B customers starting with supplier payments and then adding cards, expense management, and neobank features. Kraken described the same end state, an exchange that acts as the liquidity hub underneath banking, payroll, and payments apps.
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The next phase is full stack crypto fintechs selling to other fintechs. If Kraken can bundle liquidity, stablecoin rails, cards, custody, and compliance into one developer stack, it can become the crypto native alternative to assembling Stripe, Airwallex, and separate crypto vendors. That is where the highest value part of global money movement is heading.