Average 7 seconds to settle payment… Shopify experiments with stablecoins

It has been revealed that when paying with the stablecoin USDC on Shopify, settlement is essentially processed in real-time. As a practical use case applied to a global e-commerce platform with 2.58 million merchants worldwide, this is seen as a signal of the commercialization potential of stablecoin payments.

According to the blockchain data analysis platform Dune Analytics on the 19th, the average settlement time when paying with USDC at Shopify merchants was calculated to be 7 seconds. This means the settlement procedure, which previously took several days through card companies, payment gateways, and banks, has been transformed into a structure where it is immediately processed without intermediaries through stablecoin payments. While payments are made in USDC, merchants receive payment in the local currency as before.



On the 13th, Shopify added USDC as a payment method for merchants in cooperation with Coinbase, the largest US cryptocurrency exchange. The payment system was built based on 'Base', an Ethereum Layer 2 blockchain developed by Coinbase. Since all transactions are recorded on the blockchain, both buyers and merchants can transparently verify transaction details.

The total number of USDC payment transactions collected during the first week was 470, averaging about 67 transactions per day. The cumulative payment amount is $2,315. While the payment scale is still limited, it is evaluated as a case demonstrating the commercialization potential of stablecoin payments as usage data continues to accumulate.

Tobi Lutke, Shopify's CEO, said, "Stablecoins will become the most natural payment method for internet transactions" and added, "We plan to provide incentives such as a 1% cashback to consumers who pay with USDC".

Reporter Kim Jung-woo