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Klarna, a Swedish payments firm with 85 million users, is reportedly eyeing a US initial public offering — and its CEO is looking for ideas on how it can integrate digital assets.
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Swedish payments giant Klarna Bank AB, which is reportedly planning a US initial public offering this year, plans to “embrace crypto,” according to a Feb. 8 post from its CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski.
Source: Sebastian Siemiatkowski
Siemiatkowski said he had some ideas but asked his followers for their input, prompting responses from some industry executives. The firm processes around $100 billion in trading volume annually.
Circle CEO Jamie Allaire pitched the firm’s USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin, while Immutable’s Robbie Ferguson said gamers would benefit from the $150 billion worth of in-game item purchases under a buy-now-pay-later model.
Siemiatkowski acknowledged that his firm would be playing catch up on two of its biggest competitors, PayPal and Revolut, which already offer a wide selection of cryptocurrency services.
PayPal, for example, already offers a PayPal USD (PYUSD) stablecoin that has amassed a $583 million market cap since launching in August 2023, CoinGecko data shows. Revolut also offers 175 crypto tokens on its platform, which can be traded as low as 0% in some cases.
It comes as Klarna is preparing for an initial public offering in the US, the Financial Times reported on Feb. 8.
Related: BitPay processed 600K crypto transactions in 2024 led by LTC, BTC, ETH
Siemiatkowski’s new-found enthusiasm for the crypto industry contrasts with what his views from late 2022, when he referred to Bitcoin as a “decentralized Ponzi scheme.”
He also previously criticized how crypto transaction fees can sometimes be worth more than the transaction.
However, Siemiatkowski also admitted in June 2021 that he didn’t know how blockchain and crypto mining work.
“I found this information that says there will never be more than 21 million Bitcoins. So will be impossible to trade when all are mined?” Siemiatkowski asked at the time.
On Feb. 10, Siemiatkowski even shared a three-minute AI-generated song called “Crypto Boy” that mentioned everything from Bitcoin, Binance and Coinbase to staking, non-fungible tokens and mining.
One of the kids was so happy about crypto, Klarna, Bitcoin so we made a song.
If I get enough likes I promise to push @svt to let me perform it at Eurovision 😉
Honestly Gothenburg was good but in Luleå this could have had a chance https://t.co/rwH8QYEPhZ pic.twitter.com/qzoeB7QrZP
— Sebastian Siemiatkowski (@klarnaseb) February 9, 2025
Siemiatkowski founded Klarna in 2005 with Victor Jacobsson and Niklas Adalberth, whom Siemiatkowski met while working at Burger King.
Magazine: They solved crypto’s janky UX problem — you just haven’t noticed yet
This article first appeared at Cointelegraph.com News
