The payments app Strike, which focuses on Bitcoin, has announced its entry into the European market. The software hopes to simplify the user experience while taking advantage of the resurrection of the cryptocurrency.
Europe is Strike's second-biggest market after the US, according to founder and CEO Jack Mallers. The company's growth coincides with the recent spike in the price of Bitcoin, an alpha cryptocurrency that reached an all-time high of over $70,000 in March 2024 after ETFs were approved in January.
Mallers thinks that Strike's focus on Bitcoin will help it stand out from rivals that provide a range of cryptocurrencies, even in a market that is crowded with well-known firms like Coinbase, eToro, and BitPanda.
Compared to America, Europe doesn't seem that crowded to us. In an interview, Mallers stated, "We believe Bitcoin to be the greatest invention of our time and we aim to be among the top in the world at it."
Client demand for trading and custody services has not decreased despite Strike's emphasis on payment instruments. Following Prime Trust, its previous custodian's bankruptcy, the corporation transferred its custody operation in-house in June 2023. The market's declining faith in established financial institutions and worries about inflation will likely contribute to Mallers' prediction that Bitcoin will continue its upward trend.
An ambitious next step for Strike, which employs about 70 full-time workers and is growing 100% month over month, is the company's entry into Europe. The business is successful, and Mallers highlights Strike's resolve to accumulating as much Bitcoin as possible. The company sweeps some of its proceeds into Bitcoin through its own treasury. Strike opened its El Salvador headquarters in November 2023. The cryptocurrency payments company and Twitter (now X) partnered when the latter introduced tipping functionality.
In contrast to rivals like Coinbase, Strike hopes to offer reduced processing fees for purchasing and selling Bitcoin as it makes its way into the European market. Early testing has also demonstrated that, in comparison to more established transfer platforms like Wise, the software enables less expensive USD-EUR transfers through Bitcoin.
April 2024, Cryptoniteuae