World’s leading crypto exchange Coinbase and streaming platform Spotify have launched a gateway to enable stablecoin payments for commerce.
Speaking at the Crypto Summit on 18 June, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said the move is a strategic one to bring the exchange into payments in a big way.
The tool known as the Commerce Payments Protocol was built on the exchange’s Base blockchain and can be used by merchants starting now.
Programmable money finally ready
Merchants have been using stablecoin for payments for years, but this is a big improvement. According to Armstrong, the tool has similar functionality to a traditional credit when it is used in payment.
In this case, the functionality was built into a smart contract and is now available to everyone through a secure blockchain network.
This brings programmable money into mainstream adoption, as any merchant from any part of the world can now use the gateway to make secure, trusted payments.
Apparently, this innovation is also possible because of the stablecoin regulation bill, the GENIUS Act which the U.S. senate passed into law recently.
With the bill now passed, there is much more clarity and stablelcoins can now be trusted by merchants more than ever before.
Although the bill is yet to pass through the house before finally arriving at the president’s desk, the sentiment suggests that may not be difficult as the lawmakers seem to be mostly in favor of crypto, like the president.
Stablecoin boom on the way?
Stablecoins are already a very popular asset class for payments. The most popular of them, USDT has been the third largest crypto asset by market cap and that is not about to change for the worse.
With Coinbase’s payment tool and legal backing coming from the government, stablecoins may well be on their way to becoming a much more popular asset class than they’ve ever been.
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