so the short answer to the question of "why crypto" is just to work around regulation, to be able to act as a bank without the regulations that apply to banks?
Yeah and this is codified in the GENIUS act which passed recently. It enables tech companies to act like banks in certain dimensions, without being regulated like banks.
ah, okay, i see the part i'm missing here. the GENIUS act doesn't let "tech companies" act like banks, it specifically lets stablecoin issuers act as banks. so this is stripe's play to take advantage of that.