As US lawmakers work on passing crucial crypto-related legislation, multiple tech giants are reportedly exploring the adoption of stablecoins to lower transaction costs and streamline cross-border payments.
According to the report, Airbnb has been in talks with crypto companies since the beginning of the year, working to reduce the cost of transaction fees from payment processors like Visa and Mastercard by adopting stablecoins.
An Airbnb spokesperson affirmed that, “While crypto payments aren’t something we’re focused on integrating into the platform in the near future, we’re always looking at all aspects of payments for ways to improve our community’s experience with it, including developments in digital assets and their use cases.”
Similarly, Apple has been in conversations since January to integrate stablecoins into its payment infrastructure, four sources told Fortune. These talks have reportedly included discussions with a senior director at Circle, who works as a “strategic partnerships in stablecoin payments.”
Patrick Traughber, X’s former head of consumer products and payments, reportedly led the discussions before leaving the company in January to work on the Sam Altman-backed crypto project World. Now, Payam Abedi, a senior software engineer at X, is allegedly leading the conversations.
Rich Widmann, head of Web3 strategy at Google Cloud, told the news media outlet that “It’s pretty clear that this is probably one of the biggest upgrades to payments since the SWIFT network.”
“We’ve invoiced the customer like we would normally invoice them. They’ve paid that bill the way they would normally pay it. But they’ve used stablecoins to effectuate settlement,” he explained.
Meanwhile, Haun Ventures partner Chris Ahn said, “[Stablecoins] are this old idea, but finally I think we’ve got the right pieces coming together such that it’s really coming into fruition.”
It’s worth noting that, under the Trump administration, the US regulatory agencies have pivoted away from a “regulation by enforcement” approach, seeking to establish detailed guidelines and a clear framework for the crypto industry.
