Samsung Wallet Will Add Stablecoin Support, Including USDC

Samsung wants stablecoins next to your boarding pass. At Galaxy Unpacked in London on July 22, the company said Samsung Wallet — an app that already stores payment cards, IDs, and hotel keys — will add native support. stablecoins. Samsung did not specify a launch date, issuer, or the blockchain the tokens will run on.

“Samsung Wallet will expand beyond cash and money. It will integrate with new types of digital value, including stablecoins,” said Lee Dinham, Samsung’s marketing manager, adding that the move would make the company one of the first major mobile devices to offer native stablecoins.

“This will make Samsung one of the biggest smartphone brands to bring stablecoins to Smartphones, making the transfer of digital currency fast and reliable,” Dinham said.

Stablecoins are tokens that are designed to have a fixed value, usually $1, backed by each other with money or a small amount of government debt. Samsung showed off a case with Circle’s USDCThe second largest stablecoin is the price tag, without confirming Circle as a partner in the process.

Samsung has not said whether the feature will be encrypted, meaning that Samsung or a third party holds users’ funds, or not, where users themselves control the private keys that unlock their funds.

Samsung’s long crypto CV

None of this is a new feature of Samsung. The company introduced crypto storage in Galaxy phones in 2019 through Knox, a hardware storage room that was unlocked with a PIN or fingerprint, and later added support for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, and Stellar. In 2021, Samsung allowed Galaxy owners to connect hardware bags like the Ledger Nano S directly to the room.

Last August, Samsung expanded a partnership with Coinbase that put crypto purchases directly within the Samsung Wallet 75 million US Galaxy owners. “Samsung Wallet is a trusted tool for millions of Galaxy users,” said Drew Blackard, vice president of mobile product management at the company.

The stablecoin system arrived alongside the Way Card, Samsung’s first credit card in the United States, offered by Barclays on the Visa network with 5% cash back on Samsung purchases and 3% on outgoing Samsung Wallet. Visa’s Kirk Stuart said the card shows how “consumers expect payments to be integrated into the digital experiences they use every day.” Samsung launched a major effort as “secured payments and rewards.”