Asia Pacific (APAC) is central to Stripe’s expansion. Paul Harapin, chief revenue officer for APAC and Japan, pointed out that the region accounts for 40% of global gross domestic product (GDP), making it too large to be anything other than a core focus. Stripe already processes more than $1.4 trillion annually, or about 1.3% of global GDP, and APAC is growing faster than other regions. That momentum explains why Stripe has distributed people, licences and infrastructure across the region to keep pace with opportunity.

Paul Harapin

Chief revenue officer for APAC and Japan, Stripe

Building local rails for a fragmented APAC market

The strategy rests on localisation. Harapin stressed that “payments are very local,” shaped by culture, regulation and consumer behaviour. In Singapore, PayNow quick response (QR) codes are widely used; in India, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) dominates; while Japan remains cash-heavy despite rapid digitisation. Stripe’s presence reflects this diversity, with offices in Singapore, Bangalore, Tokyo, Melbourne, Sydney, Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea. In Singapore, Stripe holds a Major Payment Institution licence, which allows it to partner directly with regulators such as the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and agencies like the Economic Development Board (EDB).

Reliability is another cornerstone. In 2024, Stripe’s systems achieved six-nines uptime (99.9999%), with only 44 seconds of downtime across the year. This level of resilience was critical during peak global shopping events like Singles Day and Black Friday, where volumes spiked dramatically. For APAC, where outages can erode trust quickly, such reliability is a differentiator in winning enterprise accounts.

Stripe’s localisation also extends to products. Harapin noted that in the past year, Stripe rolled out over 50 APAC-specific upgrades. These include support for Pix payments in Brazil, UPI in India and NaverPay in South Korea from a United States account (without requiring a local entity), PayNow acceptance on Stripe terminal in Singapore, and expanded recurring payments with Weixin Pay in China. These “plumbing” enhancements ensure merchants can sell seamlessly across fragmented markets, while Stripe handles complexity in the background.

In Harapin’s framing, Stripe is not trying to compete head-on with local banks, wallets, or governments. Instead, it positions itself as an enabler: “We partner with wallets, banks, governments and card networks,” he explained. “There may be components we compete in, but for the most part we are an enabler.”

Stablecoins emerge as the new cross-border settlement layer

Stablecoins are one of the most important new rails for global commerce, and Stripe sees them as critical for APAC. Cross-border settlement can cost up to 6.8% of transaction value in traditional models, and Harapin said stabelecoins, including Bridge’s USDB stablecoins, offer a direct path to reducing that friction. Stripe’s own research shows that while only 14% of merchants use stablecoins today, almost 50% intend to adopt them in the next two years — a sign of accelerating mainstream uptake.

Stripe has responded by launching Stablecoin Financial Accounts, live in over 100 countries and regions, including emerging markets such as Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Brunei. Merchants can now receive payments in fiat or stablecoins, hold balances, and disburse globally at near-instant speed. Importantly, the experience is designed to be invisible: merchants interact with Stripe accounts as they always have, while settlement may take place in stablecoins under the hood.

Adoption has been rapid. Within one week of enabling stablecoin payments, Stripe processed transactions from over 70 countries. That single week exceeded its total bitcoin payment volumes in 2015 and 2016. Today, stablecoin payments are flowing from over 120 countries, far outpacing expectations and underscoring latent demand for lower-cost cross-border rails.

Harapin highlighted use cases such as programmable treasury, where companies can automate vendor payouts, escrow releases, or recurring disbursements. This flexibility is particularly valuable to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in APAC, where liquidity pressures are common. By accelerating settlement, stablecoins improve cash flow resilience and reduce working capital strain.

But Stripe is cautious to avoid hype. Harapin described stablecoin adoption as “still relatively nascent,” with uneven regulatory clarity across APAC. Singapore has provided a robust framework, but others remain cautious. Stripe’s acquisition of Bridge, a stablecoin infrastructure provider, was meant to embed compliance and custody upfront. For Stripe, trust and oversight must scale alongside adoption if institutional users are to embrace stablecoins.

AI moves from fraud detection to programmable commerce

While stablecoins address cost, artificial intelligence (AI) is Stripe’s solution to complexity and risk. Maia Josebachvili, chief revenue officer for AI, framed AI as “a core part of financial infrastructure,” not just a layer added on top. The centrepiece is Stripe’s Payments Foundation Model — the first foundation model built specifically for payments, trained on tens of billions of transaction records.

Maia Josebachvili

Chief revenue officer for AI, Stripe

The model has already delivered results. For one large enterprise, Stripe increased detection of card-testing fraud attacks by 64% overnight when the new model was deployed. Combined with previous AI systems, card-testing volumes have fallen by 80% over two years. Fraud, Josebachvili argued, is not just a cost issue but a trust issue, and AI is helping Stripe protect merchants at scale.

AI’s role extends beyond fraud. Josebachvili explained that Stripe is embedding intelligence into compliance checks, payment routing and orchestration. This matters for AI-native startups, many of whom are emerging in APAC. Such firms operate with usage-based or hybrid pricing models and scale globally from day one. “An AI startup doesn’t want to think about orchestration or fraud modelling,” she said. “They want infrastructure that flexes as they scale.”

The keynote reinforced this. 78% of the Forbes AI 50 build on Stripe, underscoring how deeply it is embedded in the AI economy. Collectively, Stripe-powered companies grew 36% year-on-year in 2024, compared to 5% for the S&P 500, evidence that its user base is outperforming broader markets. Josebachvili also highlighted a shift toward outcome-based and hybrid pricing models, which Stripe’s programmable infrastructure is designed to support.

Looking forward, Josebachvili pointed to “agentic commerce,” where AI agents transact directly on behalf of users. Stripe is already powering early examples, such as Perplexity’s hotel-booking agent. At Stripe Tour, she demostrated the Order Intents application programming interface (API), Model Context Protocol, and integrations with Vercel and Cursor, which allow developers to build agent-driven workflows. Crucially, guardrails are strict: agents are subject to the same know-your-customer (KYC) requirements as humans, and controls ensure they cannot transact outside defined limits. “With Stripe, the agent will act within compliance, instead of going off and doing its own thing.” Harapin said.

Partnering with banks, wallets and regulators for scale

Harapin reiterated that Stripe sees itself as an enabler, not a competitor. Its ecosystem spans wallets, banks, real-time payment systems and government agencies. By partnering broadly, Stripe can extend its rails while reducing friction for merchants.

Localisation remains key. Stripe’s 2025 APAC research shows that 73% of business leaders feel confident about reaching new international customers in the next year, and almost half expect growth in cross-border sales despite rising costs. This reinforces why Stripe prioritises cross-border enablement, from traditional local payment methods to stablecoin rails.

The product footprint is broad: PayNow, UPI, NaverPay, GoPay in Indonesia, Pix, Weixin Pay for recurring payments globally. Each is stitched into Stripe’s infrastructure alongside newer layers like stablecoins and AI. On the compliance side, Stripe has extended its tax services to 102 countries and broadened Radar’s scope beyond cards.
The combination is intended to give merchants continuity. A consumer can pay with whichever method they prefer, while Stripe handles orchestration, risk and settlement. For Harapin, this proves the point: “We are an enabler,” he said. Stripe is not replacing banks or networks but making them interoperable within a programmable framework.

Sequencing innovation from localisation to stablecoins and AI

Stripe’s APAC strategy is pragmatic and sequenced. Harapin acknowledged that not every market moves at the same pace. Singapore and Australia are pushing ahead on digital adoption, while Japan remains cash-heavy. Stripe’s approach is to strengthen localisation first, then layer in stablecoin and AI rails where demand and regulation align.

Josebachvili sees AI reshaping business models as much as payments flows. With startups moving towards outcome-based pricing, infrastructure must be able to handle dynamic and usage-driven contracts. Stripe aims to give those firms the rails to scale globally without being constrained by billing or compliance.

Both leaders emphasised that Stripe is not making bets for hype’s sake. Stablecoins and AI are pursued because they solve clear problems: cross-border costs, fraud and orchestration complexity. The company frames these not as speculative plays but as infrastructure improvements that will underpin the internet economy.

By layering new technologies onto trusted local rails, Stripe positions APAC as the proving ground for what global programmable payments could look like: faster, smarter, compliant and resilient.