Apple Pay: Soon possible with crypto?

Jeremy Allaire, the CEO of stablecoin publisher Circle, announced in a post on X that USDC payments via Tap-and-Go on iPhones will soon be possible. The new feature would allow USDC payments to be easily handled through the iPhone at checkout. The payment would be similar to how Apple Pay works now.

Apple plans to open up its NFC chip and Secure Element (SE) to third-party developers. As a result, blockchain-based payment features can now be integrated on Apple devices.

Until now, the only payment features on Apple's NFC have been its own Wallet app and Apple Pay. According to Allaire, this change could "open up a powerful way for USDC payments directly to sellers." In addition, this opening up would not only enable payment channels for USDC, but also for "many other things" such as NFTs for tickets or other stablecoins like EURC.

According to Apple, the APIs will soon be available to developers in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the UK and the US. However, no EU country was mentioned.

Incidentally, this is not the first time Circle has announced this move. Back in August 2021, they announced plans to enable USDC through Apple Pay. The feature was then introduced in 2022, but taken offline shortly after. Now it seems they are making another attempt.

Meanwhile, the company MetaMask, which offers a popular software wallet, announced its own partnership with Mastercard and Baanx. They plan to launch a self-managed debit card in the UK and EU.