Digital currency company Circle has announced that eligible businesses building with Circle can now increase their sales by accepting Apple Pay- an easy, secure, and private payment method. The news followed an official blog by Circle declaring that it was subsequently accepting Apple Pay. With this announcement, customers can quickly checkout using their everyday devices.
In a November 15 tweet, CEO and Founder of Circle Jeremy Allaire reiterated the company’s strive to bring more people into Web3 and native dollar digital currency (USDC), saying, “excited to launch this new on-ramp API for developers to connect Apple Pay to USDC settlement.”
Apple Pay is arguably the safest and fastest way to pay via the Safari browser and in apps, as it eliminates the need for customers to create an account or fill out tedious forms.
The move by Circle to support Apple Pay payments is extremely value-adding, particularly for crypto-native businesses. It gives customers that prefer the more traditional payment methods an alternative to buy crypto with Apple Pay on their preferred cryptocurrency exchange platform.
With this payment solution, Apple Pay and Circle have made it possible for the crypto-native business to accept payments even from anti-crypto customers.
“This feature will help ‘crypto native businesses’ as some customers may want to pay with a more traditional method to purchase crypto.”
This means that businesses reserve the luxury to choose whether to shift from the operation of a more retail payment to the contemporary digital currency and experience the benefits of USDC settlement.
However, the innovation by Apple Pay and Circle with the new payment solution poses a challenge to NFT marketplaces, crypto gaming enterprises, exchanges, crypto wallets, and cross-border remittance providers. They can bolster their businesses by simplifying the checkout process with Apple Pay and Circle.
Indeed, the challenge extends to traditional businesses that can leverage this development to transfer more retail payments to digital currency and reap all the good that comes with the USDC settlement.
Apple Pay and Circle Payment Solution Working
According to the Circle blog, the process is short and straightforward, not requiring any technical knowledge or expertise to operate.
Any eligible business can start by creating a free account and creating an Apple developer account. Next, connect to Circle’s payments solution through easy API integration and start testing Apple Pay and other payment methods in Circle’s sandbox.
Apple Pay through Circle simplifies customers’ online payment experience, including via apps on their iOS devices- iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, and related devices. In-app and web payments in Safari on the iOS device are equally accessible. Customers only have to select Apple Pay at checkout and complete the payment through Face ID or Touch ID, according to a segment on the blog.
According to the blog, the Apple Pay feature supported by Circle is only a fragment of the company’s “mission to bring the worlds of traditional and digital-native payments even closer.” This follows an official announcement during Converge22 when Circle declared plans for more merchant services to enable vendors to accept payments in crypto tokens such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH).
During the Converge22 event, Circle also disclosed intentions to offer additional features targeted at reducing checkout difficulties while at the same time improving the payments experience for both the customer and the vendor.
Since its inception, Circle has committed to helping businesses discover and tap from the benefits of USDC. Although most users see Circle’s dollar-based stablecoin USDC as crypto, in most aspects, it is simply an improvement over traditional payment rails, offering a faster and more affordable means. The company has often emphasized that USDC is “always redeemable 1:1 for the USD.”
The latest move to connect businesses and customers via a simple payment solution is a step closer to that mission, even as the company looks to find more ways to streamline the vendor-customer payment relationship. An excerpt from the blog reads:
“…more payment methods are on the way in our resolve to bridge traditional and native payments.”
Circle Advocates for Crypto Regulation
Circle has long advocated for increased regulatory scrutiny within the crypto playing field, a belief that inspired their move to apply for a banking license. Earlier in November 2022, the company received “in-principle” regulatory approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, which was a go-ahead to operate as a Major Payments Institution to provide transfers and payments, cross-border transactions included.
