The Defiant

Businesses Can Now Accept USDC With Apple Pay

Circle’s Move Comes as Stablecoin Has Been Losing Market Share

By: Tarang Khaitan Loading...

Businesses Can Now Accept USDC With Apple Pay

Circle, the issuer of the dollar-pegged USDC stablecoin, hasunveiled an integration with Apple Pay, the payment service with over half a billion users around the globe.

Merchants that process cards through Circle will be able to accept USDC as payment using this new feature.

According to the company, the integration will remove a source of friction for crypto-native businesses as they can accept traditional payment methods in addition to crypto.

Traditional businesses can use USDC as a settlement currency and Apple Pay users will also be able to buy cryptocurrencies from their preferred exchanges using USDC.

Circle is looking to integrate more payment methods going forward. It recently added merchant support for Bitcoin and Ethereum.

In April, leading web3 wallet provider Metamask extended support for Apple Pay, which allows users to purchase cryptocurrencies using credit and debit cards and store the assets in their non-custodial wallets.

On June 8, Circle expanded onto Polygon’s proof-of-stake chain in a bid to lower transaction costs and increase transaction speeds.

Circle Taps BlackRock

On Nov. 3, Circle announced a new fund called the Circle Reserve Fund that will be managed by BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager. The fund will be exclusive to Circle and will comprise cash and short-term U.S treasury bills.

The Bank of New York Mellon, which already holds some of USDC’s reserve assets, will be the custodian for this fund.

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Regaining Confidence

DeFi users have shied away from USDC after Circle pre-emptively banned 38 addresses that had interacted with Tornado Cash, the sanctioned privacy mixer protocol.

In October, we reported that USDC has lost more than $10B in market capitalization since the move.

USDC now appears to be regaining lost ground, as net issuance from Nov. 3 to Nov. 10 increased by $1.5B. Meanwhile, its market capitalization is up 5% to $44B.

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