Alchemy Pay, a prominent payment gateway, has announced a strategic collaboration with Lido, a decentralized staking protocol. This partnership represents a significant milestone in bridging traditional finance and the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector by offering a fiat on-ramp for Lido’s stETH token.
With this integration, users from around the world can now effortlessly buy and sell stETH using their preferred payment methods and local fiat currencies. The aim of this partnership is to enhance the overall user experience by incorporating Alchemy Pay’s efficient on and off-ramp services into Lido’s ecosystem.
This integration enables seamless transactions and improves accessibility to stETH, which is the liquid variant of staked ETH that accumulates daily staking rewards. The integration plays a crucial role in promoting the use of stETH in various DeFi activities, such as providing liquidity on protocols like Curve and serving as collateral for loans on Aave.
To expand global access and ensure secure transactions, Alchemy Pay’s payment gateway supports a wide range of payment methods, including Visa and Mastercard transactions in 173 countries, as well as Apple Pay, Google Pay, domestic transfers, and mobile wallets in emerging markets. This extensive support ensures that Lido users can access stETH globally and enjoy high conversion rates with minimal fees. The simplified process of buying and selling crypto with domestic currencies makes digital asset transactions as straightforward as regular online payments.
In addition to facilitating easy access to stETH, Alchemy Pay has obtained multiple licenses related to payment services in various countries, including the UK, the United States, Canada, Indonesia, and Lithuania. They are also pursuing further licenses in Hong Kong and Singapore. Recognized by Visa and Mastercard as an authorized third-party service provider, Alchemy Pay adheres to stringent compliance and regulatory standards. This establishes them as a trusted fiat-crypto payment gateway, ensuring smooth and secure transactions for both individual users and business partners.
Lido’s innovative approach to decentralized staking allows users to mint transferable staking tokens and earn rewards linked to validator activities on Ethereum and Polygon networks. The Lido protocol batches user tokens to stake with validators and routes staking packages to network staking contracts. With a total of $29.7 billion in staked tokens, Lido is at the forefront of promoting secure and decentralized staking solutions.
The partnership between Alchemy Pay and Lido goes beyond technical integration; it signifies a step towards a more interconnected and accessible blockchain ecosystem. By enabling easy and secure access to stETH through familiar payment methods, Alchemy Pay and Lido are paving the way for broader adoption of DeFi practices and enhancing the utility of staked assets.
