US-listed cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase (COIN) is introducing a stablecoin payments platform to enable businesses to send and receive USDC, the company said on Thursday.
Named simply “Coinbase Business,” the new set of tools will simplify vendor payments, eliminate chargebacks and offer seamless API integrations, allowing businesses to scale efficiently, the exchange said.
USDC balances in Coinbase Business earn 4.1% APY and can be paid out on demand to a linked business bank account via Wire or ACH, according to a blog post. All transactions can be synced with QuickBooks or Xero through integrations with CoinTracker, allowing users to adopt crypto payments while remaining compliant.
The fast-growing stablecoin arena is a competitive one. Coinbase has a 50/50 revenue split with Circle when it comes to dividends earned from the USDC stablecoin, the second largest with a market cap of $76 billion. It makes economic sense for Coinbase to bring additional USDC volume to its own platform, although the new platform appears to be in competition with the likes of Circle Payment Network, which was unveiled earlier this year.
Tom Duff Gordon, vice president of international policy at Coinbase said that there is “a high degree of tolerance” when it comes to the variety of business areas that Circle (which is backed by Coinbase) is exploring, while the exchange lists more stablecoins from more jurisdictions. “Some of these directions will overlap and some will be slightly different,” Duff Gordon said in an interview.
There are signs that Coinbase is exploring ways to flex some stablecoin tools across the exchange as well as on Base, its Ethereum overlay system. Coinbase has held talks to acquire stablecoin payment firm BVNK for around $1.5 billion. Duff Gordon declined to comment on the status of that deal.
Looking beyond cross-border payments and money transfers, Coinbase has been working on areas such as AI-powered agent trading and the expansion of x402, an open source payment protocol for stablecoin transactions among AI agents.
“I think agent trading, machine-to-machine, X402 and the use of stablecoins for things like microprogrammable payments in that environment is going to be very interesting,” said Duff Gordon. “It won’t necessarily scale overnight, but it’s definitely part of the future.”
