Shopify To Accept USDC Payments With Solana Pay

Solana Pay, a decentralized, peer-to-peer, open-source payments protocol by Solana Labs, has integrated with Shopify, a leading e-commerce platform that offers essential internet infrastructure for business. This strategic integration enables millions of merchants on Shopify’s platform to accept crypto transactions.

Built on top of the layer-1 blockchain Solana, Solana Pay was launched in February last year. The head of commerce business development at Solana Foundation, Josh Fried, told TechCrunch that the initial payment option for this integration is USD Coin. USDC is the second largest stablecoin after USDT, with a market cap of $25.9 billion.

Fried stated:

“Solana Pay on Shopify opens up millions of merchants to a more dynamic and efficient payment choice, while consumers get the convenience and increased utility of being able to pay for goods and services with digital dollar currencies.”

Choosing USDC first wasn’t accidental, he added. Most businesses are likely more comfortable with something closely related to the dollar. Moreover, USDC is more regulated than many altcoins. He also hinted that Solana plans to add the meme token BONK and its native SOL token to the platform in the future.

SolPay is also part of the Solana Saga phone and can be used on any device linked to a Solana wallet. Notably, the Saga’s price dropped to $599 in August from its starting price of $999.

Shopify And Solana Partnership Advantages

More than 11 million active Solana accounts can access Shopify businesses. These businesses make up about 10% of US e-commerce and contribute to $444 billion in global economic activity, as reported by TechCrunch. However, companies will likely need to enable Solana Pay in their merchants’ dashboards to accept payments.

Fried called this integration with Shopify a “killer app for crypto.” He said everyone “should be doubling down on this.” This initiative can save a lot on transaction costs compared to credit card charges. The average network fee is $0.00025 per transaction. In contrast, credit card fees range from 1.5% to 3.5%.

This move comes amid significant changes in the cryptocurrency market. Many crypto giants, such as Bitstamp, Robinhood, and Revolut, recently delisted major cryptocurrencies like SOL due to legal actions against Binance and Coinbase by the SEC.