Stripe’s adding a 1.5% fee for every USDC transfer, kicks in December 12, 2025. You still get your money in USD, so that part doesn’t change.

But here’s the thing: it’s 1.5% per USDC transaction on Ethereum, Base, and Polygon.

Now, if you just use the blockchain directly, moving USDC on Base costs next to nothing, about $0.000193 in gas fees. Doesn’t matter if you’re sending $2,000 or $2 million. Even a $1.65 million transfer costs the same tiny amount.

This is exactly why people build on-chain payment rails. The cost stays flat, no matter how much you send.

So why’s Stripe charging a percentage fee when the network itself barely charges anything?