Apple, Uber and Airbnb want to allow payments with stablecoins

Stablecoin issuer Circle launched on the stock exchange this week to great fanfare. It went very well and on day two, Stripe’s share price shot up 40%. This is because investors see the enormous potential of stablecoins. Where Visa and Mastercard take a percentage for the credit they allow and Western Union does the same for international money transfers, this is different with stablecoins. Their transfers are free.

Uber

According to recent reports in the American press, well-known companies such as Apple, X (formerly Twitter), Arbnb and Google have entered into discussions with crypto companies in order to allow their stablecoins (such as Tether or Paypal’s PYUSD) on their respective platforms as a form of payment. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi also stated earlier this week during a Bloomberg conference that his company is indeed ‘studying’ the use of stablecoins.

Meta (formerly Facebook) tried to introduce its own cryptocurrency, called Libra, in 2020, but encountered a lot of resistance from the US banking sector. As crypto is now much better known (and more widely accepted), it seems like a good time for the Silicon Valley tech sector to start accepting stablecoin payments.

Stablecoins are digital currencies whose value is linked to well-known fiat currencies such as the US dollar or the European Euro. They are especially popular for international money transfers by immigrants to their home countries.