Shopify Launches USDC Payment Pilot via Coinbase‑Stripe Base
E‑commerce platform Shopify will launch a pilot in late June allowing select U.S. and European merchants to accept USDC stablecoin payments, marking its first native integration of crypto payments into the platform-wide setup. Developed in partnership with Coinbase and integrated through Stripe, the initiative leverages Coinbase's Base blockchain and supports essential e‑commerce features, including refunds, chargebacks and delayed payment capture.
The opt‑out model means USDC acceptance will be enabled by default for participating merchants, who can also access up to 0.5 per cent cashback on USDC transactions. Shopify CEO Tobias Lütke, also a Coinbase board member, highlighted that the platform aspires to expand the pilot to all merchants across the U.S. and Europe by end‑2025.
Coinbase head of blockchain Jesse Pollak described the level of integration as 'holy crap' compared to existing solutions, noting that the custom protocol built on Base addresses operational challenges previously unmet by third‑party crypto plug‑ins. Stripe's role is central in embedding stablecoin functionality into Shopify Payments, enabling merchants to receive USDC or convert funds into local currency seamlessly.
ADVERTISEMENT
Stablecoins such as USDC offer the stability of a dollar‑pegged asset while enabling near‑instant, low‑cost transactions via Layer‑2 networks like Base. Stripe cites a surge in monthly stablecoin payment volume from $2 billion to $6.3 billion over the past two years. Shopify's integration now brings that rail within reach of over a million merchants based in 34 countries.
The e‑commerce industry's attention to stablecoins has intensified, with major financial institutions and tech companies—including Visa, PayPal, JPMorgan, Deutsche Bank, Apple, Meta, Airbnb and Google—either building or experimenting with stablecoin infrastructure. Shopify's entry at this scale signals a significant shift in digital commerce towards crypto‑native settlement methods.
Operationally, the rollout addresses common e‑commerce pain points. The bespoke smart contract protocol supports standard payment flows—authorisation, capture, refund, tax processing and inventory reservation—aligning cryptocurrency transactions with merchant back‑end operations.
Merchants can choose to receive USDC directly into their crypto wallets or automatically convert to local currency with zero foreign‑exchange fees. Additionally, U.S. customers will start receiving a 1 per cent cashback incentive on USDC payments later this year.
Industry analysts suggest that embedding stablecoin capability into mainstream platforms like Shopify could accelerate global digital currency adoption. It lowers technical barriers for merchants and broadens spending options for customers holding crypto assets.
While credit cards and traditional rails remain dominant, the integration demonstrates that stablecoin payments are maturing into a reliable option for commercial transactions. The pilot will effectively test merchant and consumer appetite for crypto payments on a large scale.
Pending successful outcomes, Shopify plans to roll out access to all merchants using Shopify Payments across the U.S. and Europe by the end of 2025, with potential further extension globally.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Gulf Today
6 hours ago
- Gulf Today
As NATO ups defence spending, can Europe produce weapons?
Max Delany, Agence France-Presse NATO leaders meeting in The Hague this month look set to agree to a major increase in military budgets under pressure from US President Donald Trump. But as Europe promises to ramp up defence spending and wean itself from reliance on the United States, a key question looms: can it produce enough weapons? "This is really keeping me up at night, making sure that we not only ramp up spending, but also ramp up defence industrial production," NATO chief Mark Rutte said on Thursday. More than three years into Moscow's war on Ukraine, NATO says Russia's weapons production far outstrips the West's and has warned that the Kremlin could be ready to attack the alliance within five years. The demands on NATO's European members are huge: new hardware targets agreed this month will require the biggest armament spree in decades. Rutte has pushed for a commitment to bolster defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP within seven years, plus 1.5 percent on security-related areas such as infrastructure. That would likely work out as hundreds of billions of extra euros a year. While countries seem largely on board, German defence minister Boris Pistorius last week pointed to one challenge "nobody really discusses". "It is about how much money is really able to be spent... if industry is not able to deliver what we ordered," he told his NATO colleagues. The push to bolster output will be prominent in The Hague with NATO hosting an industry forum alongside the summit. After years of underinvestment following the Cold War, the European Union has unveiled a raft of initiatives since Moscow's 2022 invasion. National budgets have increased and Brussels has sought to plug the funding gap with plans that could mobilise a further 800 billion euros ($924 billion). A major focus is making sure most of that money is spent buying weapons in Europe so the continent can stand more on its own two feet. But persistent gripes remain: businesses lack long-term orders, capacity is too low, costs are too high, production times too long and the industry too fragmented. "To some extent, the budgetary debates and the spending debates are behind us. The question is, how do you translate all of that funding into actual capabilities?" Hugues Lavandier, head of aerospace and defence for Europe at McKinsey, told a Brussels conference. Waiting times for new weaponry can stretch for years, and for some key equipment such as longer-range missiles, Europe still relies on the United States. But proponents say the continent has the potential to meet demand — provided governments and defence firms get a move on. "Our assessment is that we can produce 95 plus percent of whatever we need to credibly deter and be ready," said Francois Arbault, a top official overseeing the defence industry at the European Commission. "But we need the orders and we need that manufacturing power to be actually materialised in additional investment, because you need to ramp up." Industry leaders say orders are picking up, if not as fast or for as long a period as hoped, and insist businesses are already putting money into expanding. The CEO of Swedish defence giant Saab, Micael Johansson, told AFP his firm increased its workforce by 6,000 people and quadrupled ammunition in recent years. "Absolutely, we can do more -- and fortunately, many of us have invested at risk to increase capacity," he said. "We're getting the signals that demand will be high, but I can't say that I know exactly what target levels we're aiming for." One fear officials have is that a sudden splurge in spending could lead to price hikes. "There's a real risk that we get, you know, less bang for our buck because of inflation," said Matthew Whitaker, the US ambassador to NATO. "We need to make sure that it's incremental, that it's measured, but that it's sustained." To help smooth out barriers blocking investment, the EU is set next week to unveil a push to strip away red tape. "It cannot be that the defence industry needs to wait five years to have a permit to build a new factory," EU defence commissioner Andrius Kubilius said. "(Russian leader Vladimir) Putin will not wait for us to get our paperwork in order." One way to bolster Europe's capacity long-term could be turning to battle-hardened Ukraine. As Russia's war has raged on, Ukrainian firms have become experts at cost-cutting and the country is now a leader in drone technology. "The Ukrainian industry is very important," said Guntram Wolff at the Bruegel think tank in Brussels. "The products that they produce are actually low cost and very effective."
Gulf Today
12 hours ago
- Gulf Today
Boeing shares sink, dollar dives on Trump's new trade threat
Wall Street stocks dipped early Thursday after fresh trade war rhetoric from President Donald Trump, while Boeing shares tumbled following a brutal Air India crash on a 787 jet. Just hours after Trump reached a new detente with China on trade tensions, the president threatened to 'send letters out' with an ultimatum to other trading partners. Meanwhile, Boeing shares shed about five percent after a London-bound 787 Dreamliner crashed in western India, likely killing all 242 people on board. About 25 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.4 percent at 42,705.52. The broad-based S&P 500 slipped 0.1 percent to 6,018.24, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index also declined 0.1 percent to 19,595.85. Data showed that wholesale prices rose 0.1 percent last month, a modest uptick as analysts continue to caution that Trump's tariffs could lift inflation in the coming months. Among other stocks, Oracle surged 12.1 percent following an upbeat earnings report. The software giant scored eight percent revenue growth in the last year but predicted the coming year would be 'even better.' The dollar plunged on Thursday after US President Donald Trump threatened higher unilateral tariffs on trade partners, and oil see-sawed as traders evaluated the probability behind reports that Israel could be gearing up to strike Iran. Stock traded mixed as investors navigated the double whammy of returning trade uncertainty and geopolitical volatility, while Boeing's share price slumped sharply in the wake of a deadly 787 Dreamliner crash in India. In New York, the broad S&P 500 index reversed early losses to trade slightly up, but the blue-chip Dow struggled in the red. All European stock markets finished lower, except London, which posted an uptick despite official data showing the UK economy shrank more than expected in April. The dollar was down against the euro, and at one point fell by more than one percent to its lowest point in three years against the European single currency. 'Trump has done it again. The US president has rattled markets with fresh threats of unilateral tariff rates on several trading partners,' said Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at 'Investors are now asking questions... and that's before considering other risks that include valuations, bond market troubles, and a potential military conflict between Iran and Israel,' he said. Trump on Wednesday said he would be sending letters within the next two weeks to other countries' governments to announce unilateral US levies on their exports to America. 'This is the deal, you can take it or leave it,' Trump told reporters. The return to trade belligerence eclipsed any optimism that had emerged from a putative agreement between the United States and China on Tuesday to modestly de-escalate trade tensions. It also left the European Union staring down the barrel of 50-percent tariffs -- at least -- when a pause on them ends on July 9, without any sign so far of Brussels and Washington close to reaching a trade agreement. The EU has reportedly drawn up plans to slap 100 billion euros ($116 billion) of additional tariffs on US goods if the US levies go ahead. But 'the indices that seem most exposed to tariffs are China, Mexico, the UK, and those of commodity exporters like South Africa, Saudi Arabia, Australia, and especially Canada,' said Capital Economics analyst Giulia Bellicoso. Markets were also following reports that Israel was poised to launch airstrikes on Iran -- along with Trump saying he was now 'less confident' that talks with Tehran would end up with it rolling back its nuclear programme. Oil prices, which had initially jumped on Wednesday on the heightened tensions, flipped direction for much Thursday as investors and analysts weighed reports of imminent Israeli strikes. Towards the end of the trading session they were close to where they ended on Wednesday. 'A solo Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear program without US acknowledgement or support is highly unlikely' and carried a 'considerable' risk of miscalculation, said analysts at Eurasia Group, although they did say the UN nuclear agency's censure 'adds to (the) escalatory environment'. In the end, the 'threat of an Israeli attack gives the US more leverage during talks,' they surmised. The next round of US-Iran talks is scheduled for Sunday. In New York share trading, Boeing dropped more than five percent after a London-bound Air India plane -- a Boeing 787 -- carrying 242 people had crashed in Ahmedabad. The US planemaker declared itself ready to support Air India following the crash, the first involving a 787 Dreamliner. Agencies
Al Etihad
13 hours ago
- Al Etihad
Stocks tumble, oil prices jump after Israel attacks Iran
13 June 2025 15:59 LONDON (Reuters)World stock markets tumbled on Friday and oil prices surged as Israel launched a military strike on Iran, sparking a rush into safe havens such as gold, dollar and Swiss escalation adds uncertainty to financial markets at a time of heightened pressure on the global economy from US President Donald Trump's aggressive and erratic trade on Friday Trump urged Iran to make a deal over its nuclear programme, saying that there was still time for the country to prevent further conflict with reaction, which had abated in early European trade, gathered a renewed momentum as the session wore crude oil prices were last up almost 9% at $75.54 per barrel, having jumped as much as 14% during Asian hours. They were set for their biggest one-day jump since 2022, when energy costs spiked after Russia's invasion of oil futures rose almost $6 to $ a classic safe-haven at times of global uncertainty, rose 1% to $3,416 per ounce, bringing it close to the record high of $3,500.05 from launched large-scale strikes against Iran on Friday, saying it had attacked nuclear facilities and missile factories in what could be a prolonged operation to prevent Tehran building an atomic said it had no part in the developments mean another major geopolitical tail risk has now become a reality at a time when investors are wrestling with major shifts in US economic and trade policies. TWO-WAY PULL FOR BONDS US Treasuries initially benefited from the rush for safer assets, but as the day wore on focus turn to the inflationary impact of 10-year Treasury yields were last up 2.6 basis points (bps) at 4.38%, having touched a one-month low of 4.31%. Bond yields move inversely to 10-year bond yield touched its lowest level since early March at around 2.42%, before also moving traders were attracted to the dollar as a haven, with the dollar index up 0.8% to 98.50, retracing most of Thursday's sizeable Swiss franc briefly touched its strongest level against the dollar since April 21, before trading 0.5% lower at around 0.8144 per safe haven the Japanese yen fell 0.6% to 144.33 per dollar, giving up earlier gains of 0.3%. The euro was down 0.8% at $1.15, after rising on Thursday to the highest since October 2021. Stock Markets Continue full coverage
