The cryptocurrency industry has long been searching for an intermediary that would bring blockchain technology into the financial mainstream.
It looks like that middleman could be stablecoins. Digital assets pegged to fiat currencies like the dollar have become a new payment tool that banks and fintech companies are quickly embracing. Now tech giants like Apple, X (formerly Twitter), Airbnb and Google are getting ready to enter the space.
The companies are holding early-stage meetings with crypto firms to discuss stablecoin integration, sources told Fortune, adding that the companies are considering adopting stablecoins specifically to reduce transaction costs and optimize cross-border payments.
These aren’t the only big tech companies showing interest in stablecoins. Meta has refocused on payments projects that it previously shelved due to regulatory hurdles. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi recently said at a Bloomberg conference that stablecoins are “in the research phase” for global money transfers.
The X platform has reached out to crypto companies to integrate stablecoins into its payments app X Money. Part of Elon Musk’s “app for everything” vision, the initiative could enable peer-to-peer payments systems similar to Venmo between users. In January, X announced a partnership with Visa to develop a digital wallet. X also recently partnered with cryptocurrency prediction platform Polymarket.
Apple has also been in talks with crypto companies about stablecoins since January. According to information obtained by Fortune, Apple’s talks included Matt Cavin, a senior director at Circle. Apple already has a strong presence in the payment system with Apple Pay.
Airbnb, on the other hand, believes that accepting stablecoins as a payment method could reduce fees paid to payment processors such as Visa and Mastercard. The company is reportedly in talks with its payment partner Worldpay to this end. Worldpay announced last week that it would implement stablecoin payments in partnership with BNVK.
The statement from Airbnb included the following statements:
“While integrating crypto payments into the platform is not our priority at the moment, we are closely monitoring digital assets and their use cases to improve the payment experience.”
*This is not investment advice.
