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UK-based payments solution provider Checkout.com announced on Tuesday the launch of its stablecoin settlement solution by using Fireblocks’ new crypto payment technology.
With this access, Checkout.com is set to provide its merchants with flexible instant fiat-to-stablecoin conversion for customer payments.
Checkout.com, which competes with Fintech firms like PayPal and Stripe, mentioned that it launched the service to enable merchants (businesses) to accept and make payments in USD Coin, a popular stablecoin pegged to the U.S. dollar.
Issued by Circle Inc., USD Coin (USDC) is the second stablecoin by market. Currently, there is about $53 billion worth of USD Coin (USDC) in circulation. Tether remains the biggest stablecoin issuer with $78.6 billion in total supply.
Stablecoins have become a popular way of settlement, helping investors trade digital currencies rapidly without needing to go through banks.
Jess Houlgrave, Checkout.com’s head of crypto strategy, said that the new feature would provide merchants with 24/7 settlements, including weekends and public holidays, which is not currently possible with fiat currencies. Crypto users can get their payments straight away. Still, banks and card schemes like Visa and Mastercard operate in a way that merchant payouts are limited to 9-5 on weekdays through batch processing over several business days.
Checkout.com disclosed that it has tested the feature privately with a select number of clients, facilitating $300 million in transaction volumes in the past few months.
At the start, Checkout.com said that its stablecoin settlement supports USDC, but it plans to expand the service to a broader range of assets. The startup plans to roll out the service worldwide, with FTX, a Bahamas-based crypto exchange, among the first to use it.
Bridging the Gap Between Crypto and Fiat Money
In January, Checkout.com raised $1 billion in a Series D funding round from investors such as Altimeter, Dragoneer, Franklin Templeton, GIC, Insight Partners, the Qatar Investment Authority, Tiger Global, the Oxford Endowment Fund, and many others.
The fundraising round gave Checkout.com a valuation of $40 billion. The valuation gave Checkout.com the status of the most valuable private fintech in the U.K. and the third most valuable private fintech globally.
The latest move by Checkout.com is the latest example of the rising acceptance of digital assets by major financial institutions throughout the globe.
Currently, various financial institutions are seeking to bridge the gap between fiat and crypto payment options.
In April, Stripe started using Polygon to enable customers to pay freelancers, sellers, content creators, and service providers in cryptocurrency.
Last month, Stripe started allowing Twitter users to get paid in USDC stablecoins and announced plans to roll out the service to other firms to pay their customers using the cryptocurrency.
Image source: Shutterstock
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