Circle Internet Financial has released a new programmable Web3 wallet platform that 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, allowing consumers to send, receive, and store cryptocurrencies, including Circle’s USDC and non-fungible tokens (NFTs). The service is currently available in a public beta version on Ethereum (ETH), Avalanche (AVAX), and Polygon (MATIC) networks for developers, with plans to expand to other blockchains later this year.
This product launch comes as crypto firms aim to increase the role of stablecoin payments in the real-world economy. Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency that anchor their price to another asset, usually 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, said Jeremy Allaire, chief executive of Circle.