Circle Seeks to Make Crypto Payments Easier With New 'Programmable Wallets'

USDC stablecoin issuer Circle Internet Financial on Tuesday released a new, programmable web3 wallet platform that the company says can help businesses offer digital-asset payments to customers.

According to a press release, developers and merchants can integrate and personalize Circle’s "programmable wallets" into their applications and build services on top, letting consumers send, receive and store cryptocurrencies, including Circle’s USDC stablecoin and non-fungible tokens, or NFTs.

The service is available in a public beta version on the Ethereum (ETH), Avalanche (AVAX) and Polygon (MATIC) networks for developers, with plans to expand to other blockchains later this year, Circle said.

Circle’s new product comes as crypto firms aim to increase the role of stablecoin payments in the real-world economy.

Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrencies that anchor their price to another asset, predominantly to the U.S. dollar. They are a $128 billion asset class and a key piece of infrastructure that bridges traditional payment systems with the digital-asset economy, facilitating trading, transactions and conversion to crypto from government-issued (fiat) money.

Millions of people, especially in developing countries with fragile banks and currencies, including Argentina and Turkey, seek U.S.-dollar stablecoins as a safe haven to store wealth and send remittances.

“This new platform marks the first step for Circle’s Web3 services as we work to ease common pain points for developers, remove friction from value exchange, deliver more seamless user experiences and help drive blockchain-powered wallet adoption,” Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said in a statement.