Well, well, well, what do we have here? The global e-commerce behemoth Shopify is now dabbling in the world of stablecoins, specifically Circle’s USDC, in a cozy collaboration with the major US exchange Coinbase. 🤝💰
Shopify has grand plans to roll out USDC payments on Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 (L2) network Base through Shopify Payments and Shop Pay throughout the year, they announced with a flourish on Thursday. 🎉
“We think that stablecoins are a natural way to transact on the internet and worked with Coinbase to develop the commerce payment protocol smart contract that powers this work,” Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke said in an X post on Thursday. One can only imagine the brainstorming sessions that led to this revelation. 🤔
The new stablecoin payment feature by Shopify will also allow the company to offer buyer incentives like 1% cash back in local currency payouts in the future, the CEO noted. Because who doesn’t love a little extra cash back, right? 🤑
Shopify taps Base for payments
Coinbase’s Base blockchain, the fourth-largest network for USDC, is responsible for 6% of the stablecoin’s total supply of $61 billion, according to data from USDC Transparency and CoinGecko. That’s a lot of digital dough! 🍞
Built by Coinbase, Base is described as an “ultra-fast and affordable network that has emerged as a great way for moving money,” Shopify said. The company also mentioned that Base offers “fast, cheap, and secure transactions” while providing a 24/7 global payment rail. It’s like the Uber of digital transactions, but without the surge pricing. 🚀
Since Shopify did not mention whether the company expects to consider the native support of more USDC chains or just some additional crypto assets and stablecoins, many online commentators were curious about the choice of Base. “What’s the point of narrowing your top of the funnel? You should support all chains that stripe via USDC supports,” one user wrote on X. Good point, mate. 🙌
Indirect Bitcoin support in place since 2013
Shopify’s new USDC partnership with Coinbase is not its first foray into the crypto world. Shopify has been indirectly supporting Bitcoin (BTC) payments through gateway integrations since at least 2013, when the company officially announced that all of its 75,000 merchants were free to start accepting Bitcoin. That’s practically ancient history in crypto years! 🏺
According to Shopify Help Center, Shopify allows merchants to integrate at least nine additional payment methods featuring a wide variety of supported crypto assets, through integrations with third-party gateways like BitPay, Solana Pay, and more. “Due to longer settlement times, cryptocurrency transactions can cause overselling in flash sales. Use a direct payment method like Shopify Payments for the best flash sale performance,” the help center’s message notes. So, it’s a bit of a mixed bag, really. 🤷♂️
The latest partnership between Shopify and Coinbase is also not the first collaboration between the two companies in relation to digital currency. In 2019 and 2020, Coinbase and Shopify joined Meta’s (formerly Facebook’s) stablecoin project Diem, initially known as Libra. Following years of pushback from global regulators, the project was officially shut down in early 2022. It’s a bit like a high school romance that never quite made it to prom. 😢
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2025-06-13 11:58