Crypto stablecoin issuer Circle adds Apple Pay support

Circle, the issuer of the United States dollar-pegged stablecoin USD Coin (USDC), has added support for Apple Pay — with the intention of bringing the crypto and traditional payment systems closer together.

Circle made the announcement in a Nov. 15 blog post suggesting it may boost sales for crypto-native businesses as they can facilitate traditional payments from non-crypto-using customers while enabling customers to “buy crypto with Apple Pay on their preferred exchange.”

According to Circle, the addition of Apple Pay support will benefit traditional businesses by allowing them “to shift more retail payments to digital currency.”

Apple Pay is available to “eligible businesses” and claims enabling it is “a simple process”, meanwhile customers who checkout with Apple Pay at participating firms will finalize the transaction, as usual, using Apple’s Face ID or Touch ID.

Apple has over 1.8 billion active devices worldwide Apple’s CEO Tim Cook claimed in a Q1 2022 earnings call. Apple Pay is one of the most used digital wallets in the U.S. behind PayPal according to reports.

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USDC has the second largest market cap within the stablecoin market, surpassed only by Tether (USDT), which in the wake of the FTX downfall stoked fear in investors after it depegged slightly from the USD.

In an interview with Cointelegraph, Circle’s vice president of product Joao Reginatto mentioned that they envision the future will be a “multichain world” soon after Circle’s announcement on Sept. 28 that they would rollout its stablecoin across Polkadot (DOT), Optimism (OP), Near Protocol (NEAR), Arbitrum, and Cosmos (ATOM) blockchains.

Both Tether and Circle have denied having any exposure to FTX and Alameda as contagion from the fallout of one of the former-largest crypto exchanges in the world spreads throughout the industry.