Checkout.com is joining the likes of Visa and Stripe to facilitate payment settlement in stablecoin. On Tuesday, the $40 billion payment processor announced it is launching a new settlement feature for its merchants to receive and process cryptocurrency payments, specifically on USD Coin (USDC), the second-largest stablecoin.
Checkout.com begins USDC settlement
The stablecoin settlement feature comes in partnership with cryptocurrency security company Fireblocks. As with cryptocurrency payments, the merchants will be able to accept and make payments with the stablecoin round the clock, even on weekends and holidays. This is not possible with fiat currencies, according to Checkout.com Head of Crypto Strategy, Jess Houlgrave.
Between the time that they’ve sent the bitcoin, and the time that they receive those funds, they have a working capital constraint.
Jess Houlgrave
While in Beta months ago, Checkout.com said it successfully facilitated $300 million in transaction volumes privately with select clients. It’s now preparing to open the offering to the public.
Are stablecoins the future of payments?
The popularity of digital currencies has risen significantly over the years, but stablecoins see a greater demand for payment, especially amongst merchants globally. This can be attributed to their non-volatile nature, unlike Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc., which fluctuates widely in price. Hence, several payment processors are open to dabbling into crypto, starting with stablecoins.
In March 2021, payment giant Visa became the industry’s first to offer transaction settlement in stablecoin, precisely USD Coin. Months after, another rival, MasterCard revealed its outline to offer a similar payment experience for its global users.
As recently as 22 April, Stripe also announced it would harness Ethereum scaling network Polygon to enable customers to send and process payments in USDC. It said social media platform Twitter would be among the first entities to try the new settlement feature.
