Stripe taps Privy CEO Henri Stern to lead its crypto and stablecoin push

Stripe has handed the keys to its crypto and stablecoin strategy to Henri Stern, the co-founder and CEO of Privy. He takes the role around October 5, 2026, and keeps running Privy, the wallet company Stripe acquired last year. The appointment matters because Stripe has spent real money assembling a stablecoin toolkit. Now it has picked someone to make that toolkit work as one product. What Stern is inheriting Stern’s new remit covers Stripe’s crypto and stablecoin work across the board. That includes its stablecoin card programs and its developer offerings. Stripe bought Privy in 2025, announcing the deal in mid-June and closing it around July. Privy builds embedded wallets, which let apps give users a crypto wallet without making them install a separate app or memorize a seed phrase. Privy’s scale is the reason Stripe wanted it. The platform supports over 160 million accounts. It processes billions in monthly volume for more than 2,000 developers and businesses. Before Privy, Stripe bought Bridge for $1.1 billion. Bridge is a stablecoin orchestration platform that handles the plumbing that moves stablecoins in and out of regular money and between systems. Stack those together and ...