Coinbase has recently announced the integration of Apple Pay into its fiat-to-crypto payment tool, Coinbase Onramp. This move aims to streamline the process of buying and transferring supported cryptocurrencies for users, both on the exchange’s website and from self-custody wallets.
The goal of Coinbase Onramp is to facilitate the efficient movement of money between fiat and on-chain economies, providing a seamless experience for users. With the integration of Apple Pay, Coinbase is looking to enhance the end-to-end experience and make crypto onramping easier for the 60 million US customers who use the Apple payment product.
In a recent press release, Coinbase stated, “Coinbase Onramp makes it easy to build fiat onramps into your app so you can focus on what matters most — building your app. For eligible purchases, we provide lightweight KYC to make the process of getting on-chain even simpler. To turbocharge this feature for your users, we’ve now integrated Apple Pay as a payment method.”
One notable feature of Coinbase Onramp is that it does not charge fees for onramping USDC, a stablecoin issued by Circle that aims to maintain a 1:1 peg to the US dollar. USDC was co-created by Circle and Coinbase in 2018, and the two companies jointly managed the asset through the Centre Consortium until last year.
In August 2023, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire announced that Circle would take full control of USDC’s governance and operations responsibilities to streamline the management of the stablecoin. Coinbase also announced that it would purchase an equity stake in Circle at that time.
Overall, the integration of Apple Pay into Coinbase Onramp is expected to make the process of buying and transferring cryptocurrencies more efficient and convenient for users. With this new feature, Coinbase continues to innovate in the crypto space and make digital asset onramping more accessible to a wider audience.