Stripe CEO says token theft has become rampant in the AI economy, with fraudsters now accounting for one in every six new customer signups

According to Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe, criminals are defrauding AI firms by creating accounts to steal tokens (digital credits used to purchase computing power). Token thieves now represent one in every six new customer signups, and the problem has become so widespread that free trials are becoming too costly for AI startups to offer.

Fraudsters use automated agents to burn through stolen tokens in minutes, consuming them at machine speed. This speed makes it difficult for companies to detect and stop the fraud in real time, unlike traditional software fraud. Emily Sands, Stripe's Head of Data and AI, cited one startup where fraudster abuse inflated customer-acquisition costs to $500.

Stripe is adapting its Radar fraud-detection tool to help AI firms identify and block token fraud by assigning real-time risk scores based on IP address, email domain, and device fingerprint. AI firms including ElevenLabs and Lovable are already using the service; one Stripe client improved its conversion rate from 1 in 25 to 1 in 3 after blocking fraudulent accounts.

Stripe is backing a blockchain called Tempo to enable streaming payments using stablecoins, allowing customers to pay for AI services in real time as they consume them. Coinbase has developed a similar product called x402. Over the last six months, free trial abuse has more than doubled, with the last month showing a dramatic acceleration.