As US lawmakers work on passing crucial crypto-related legislation, multiple tech giants are reportedly exploring the adoption of stablecoins to lower transaction costs and streamline cross-border payments.
Apple, Airbnb, X Eye Stablecoin Integration
On Friday, Fortune reported that multiple Big Tech companies are in early conversations with crypto firms to integrate stablecoins. Sources familiar with the matter told the new media outlet that Apple, X, Airbnb, and Google are exploring the adoption of stablecoins to optimize cross-border payments and transaction costs.
According to the report, Airbnb has been in talks with crypto companies since the beginning of the year, working to reduce the cost of transaction fees from payment processors like Visa and Mastercard by adopting stablecoins.
The short-term home rental platform has allegedly discussed the stablecoin integration with Worldpay, one of its payment processors, a crypto company executive said. Notably, Worldpay recently announced that it would enable stablecoin payouts with the stablecoin infrastructure company BNVK.
An Airbnb spokesperson affirmed that, “While crypto payments aren’t something we’re focused on integrating into the platform in the near future, we’re always looking at all aspects of payments for ways to improve our community’s experience with it, including developments in digital assets and their use cases.”
Similarly, Apple has been in conversations since January to integrate stablecoins into its payment infrastructure, four sources told Fortune. These talks have reportedly included discussions with a senior director at Circle, who works as a “strategic partnerships in stablecoin payments.”
Social media platform X has also recently been in touch with crypto companies about integrating stablecoins into its new payments app, X Money. Seemingly, Elon Musk’s platform is in talks with payments processor Stripe for the integration.
Patrick Traughber, X’s former head of consumer products and payments, reportedly led the discussions before leaving the company in January to work on the Sam Altman-backed crypto project World. Now, Payam Abedi, a senior software engineer at X, is allegedly leading the conversations.
More Tech Giants Explore Crypto Adoption
Google Cloud is “arguably the furthest along on stablecoin integrations,” the report started, as the tech giant has already accepted payments from two of its customers in PayPal’s PYSUD, which recently saw the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) end its probe into the stablecoin with no enforcement action.
Rich Widmann, head of Web3 strategy at Google Cloud, told the news media outlet that “It’s pretty clear that this is probably one of the biggest upgrades to payments since the SWIFT network.”
“We’ve invoiced the customer like we would normally invoice them. They’ve paid that bill the way they would normally pay it. But they’ve used stablecoins to effectuate settlement,” he explained.
The report noted that other Big Tech companies, including Meta, are also exploring stablecoins. On Thursday, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi stated that the company is in the “study” phase of stablecoins for global money transfers.
Meanwhile, Haun Ventures partner Chris Ahn said, “[Stablecoins] are this old idea, but finally I think we’ve got the right pieces coming together such that it’s really coming into fruition.”
It’s worth noting that, under the Trump administration, the US regulatory agencies have pivoted away from a “regulation by enforcement” approach, seeking to establish detailed guidelines and a clear framework for the crypto industry.
The recent change has pushed the industry’s adoption to new levels, with numerous Strategic Bitcoin Reserve proposals and Treasury plans making the headlines. Additionally, US lawmakers continue their bipartisan efforts to advance the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, a legislation aiming to allow the growth of the stablecoin industry in the US.
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