Anika Begay
As the global cryptocurrency industry continues to evolve, the integration of the sector with traditional technologies is rapidly becoming a thing. The latest news highlighting this phenomenon comes from Circle, a fintech company behind the issuance of the popular USDC stablecoin.
This morning, the company’s CEO, Jeremy Allaire, announced in a post on X that Circle is preparing to enable tap-and-go payments with USDC on iPhones.
This development follows Apple’s latest move to allow third-party developers access to its NFC chip and Secure Element technology. The trillion-dollar company specifically noted in the announcement:
Starting with iOS 18.1, developers will be able to offer NFC contactless transactions using the Secure Element from their apps on iPhone, separately from Apple Pay and Apple Wallet.
A new era coming?
Providing further details on the launch of USDC’s “tap-and-go” functionality on iPhones, Allaire highlighted the implications of this update for payment systems, noting that point-of-sale systems could soon communicate directly with iPhone wallets to process transactions using blockchain addresses.
This would facilitate “seamless” USDC payments to merchants authenticated via biometrics such as FaceID. Allaire added:
Combining this with high-performance blockchain networks and low fees (most of which are nowadays) will open up a powerful avenue for direct USDC payments to merchants.
Furthermore, Allaire stressed that Apple’s latest move extends far beyond the USDC stablecoin.
Lots of chatter and questions about my tweet. A little more clarity so people don’t make it into something it’s not.
Why is USDC tap-to-pay coming to iPhones soon, and what does it mean for Wallet developers to get started?
– Circle has no relationship with Apple and this… https://t.co/IZfLbIsWGp
— Jeremy Allaire – jda.eth / jdallaire.sol (@jerallaire) August 14, 2024
According to Allaire, with access to NFC technology, developers could invent innovative ways to use iPhones for a variety of applications, from managing non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for ticketing to managing other stablecoins like EURC.
Third-party access to Apple’s NFC chip and Secure Element technology is limited to certain countries, including Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom.
The European Union was left out as Apple did not mention it among the countries that will have access to this latest decision.
USDC Performance in the Cryptocurrency World
As of now, USDC is currently ranked as the second largest stablecoin, after Tether’s USDT, which is the first. To put things into perspective, while USDT’s market cap is $116.4 billion, Circle’s USDC has a market cap of $34.5 million, almost $100 billion difference when compared.
In any case, USDC is still making its mark in the cryptocurrency space, especially in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector. According to data from DeFillma, USDC has supported 77 chains, while USDT has supported 76.
Featured image created with DALL-E, chart from TradingView
