Tech Giants Apple, X, Airbnb, and Google Explore Stablecoin Integration for Payment Innovations

Apple, X, Airbnb, and Google are engaging in preliminary discussions with cryptocurrency firms regarding the integration of stablecoins. This information comes from a report by Fortune citing its own sources.

These companies are exploring the adoption of stable assets as a way to reduce transaction costs and streamline international payments.

Recent factors sparking significant interest among tech giants in this technology include:

“Stablecoins are an old concept, but I believe we finally have all the necessary components together, and it’s now yielding real results,” commented Chris An, a partner at the venture firm Haun Ventures, who was one of the early investors in Bridge.

Rich Widmann, head of Google Cloud’s Web3 strategy, confirmed that the company is looking into integrating stablecoins, referring to this technology as “the most significant update in payments since the introduction of the SWIFT network.”

He stated that Google’s cloud service has already processed two test transactions using PYUSD from PayPal.

Airbnb has indicated that it does not plan to incorporate crypto payments in the near term, but is examining various ways to enhance interaction with the community, including developments in digital assets.

Fortune’s sources revealed that the short-term rental aggregator has been negotiating with Worldpay about the potential use of stablecoins. The firm anticipates that leveraging this technology could help reduce processing fees associated with Visa and Mastercard.

Elon Musk’s social media platform X is considering the integration of stablecoins into its payment service, X Money, with Stripe mentioned as a potential partner.

According to the publication, Apple representatives have at least spoken with Matt Kavanaugh, senior director at Circle. Among Kavanaugh’s responsibilities are strategic partnerships in the payments sphere.

In early June, the capitalization of stablecoins surpassed $250 billion for the first time.

At the time of writing, USDT from Tether leads the segment, boasting a market cap of over $154 billion, while USDC stands at $61 billion.

Hank Huang, CEO of Kronos Research, labeled this achievement of a quarter-trillion-dollar market cap as a “turning point,” noting that “stablecoins are no longer an experiment, but a necessity.”

He predicts the market could double by 2026, with new competitors like USD1, linked to former U.S. President Donald Trump, potentially challenging the current leaders.

Reports indicate that a consortium of major U.S. banks is in talks about a joint stablecoin issuance, involving participants such as JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, and others.

Sources from Fortune highlighted that one of the challenges facing these tech giants is choosing the right stablecoin for integration, especially since Tether faces regulatory hurdles in the U.S. Company head Paolo Ardoino recently confirmed that Tether’s business development is primarily focused on emerging markets.

Circle recently went public on June 5, and there are questions surrounding the future ownership following the IPO.

Other stablecoins, such as PYUSD, fall significantly behind the leaders in market adoption.

In March, FT journalists concluded that a “stablecoin race” has commenced among the largest global banks and fintech firms.

Some institutions are planning to launch their tokens in an effort to capture a share of this growing segment, including American investment giant Fidelity Investments, Dutch bank ING, and Japanese corporation Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, managed by SMBC.

Visa has joined the USDG stablecoin consortium established in 2024, while its rival Mastercard has partnered with Circle, Paxos, and Nuvei to facilitate payments in fiat-backed coins.

In the tech sector, Meta has revisited the idea of integrating stablecoins. Three years ago, the parent company of Facebook and WhatsApp abandoned its Diem project (formerly Libra) under pressure from lawmakers.

As a reminder, Standard Chartered estimates that the capitalization of stablecoins could reach $2 trillion by 2028, which aligns with projections from the U.S. Treasury Department.