Bitcoin And Crypto Suddenly Braced For A ‘Powerful’ Apple iPhone Wallet Update After Price Swings

Bitcoin
Bitcoin
and cryptocurrencies have been given a shot in the arm this year by first a huge Wall Street earthquake and then the surprise embrace of former president Donald Trump.

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The bitcoin price surged back to over its previous all-time high earlier this year, topping $70,000 per bitcoin before falling back (though many still expect a bitcoin price boom before the end of 2024).

Now, after a leak primed the bitcoin and crypto market for a U.S. crackdown, iPhone maker Apple has announced a major change to its Apple Wallet—described by one crypto chief executive as a “powerful” update.

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Apple has said it will begin letting third-party developers use the iPhone’s near-field communication (NFC) payment chip to handle transactions following a multi-year pressure campaign from regulators in Europe for the company to open up the platform.

iPhone users will be able to choose a third-party payment app as their system default and possibly one that supports bitcoin, crypto, or stablecoin payment options. Stablecoins—the largest of which are Tether’s USDT
Tether
and Circle’s USDC—are cryptocurrencies price-pegged to traditional currencies, usually the U.S. dollar.

“Tap to pay using USDC on iPhones incoming soon,” USDC stablecoin developer Circle’s chief executive Jeremy Allaire posted to X, telling wallet devs to “start your engines.”

Allaire went on to explain what the update will mean for developers and point-of-sale (PoS) hardware/software companies and how they should prepare.

“This would allow a [point of sale] to tell an iPhone what blockchain address it will accept USDC on, or the amount to pay, and then the iPhone-based wallet app could prompt the user to confirm a payment (like with FaceID) and initiate a transaction over the blockchain to settle the USDC,” Allaire said.

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“Combining this with high-performance and low-fee blockchain networks (most these days), this will open up a powerful pathway for direct to merchant USDC payments.”

Apple will still require developers to pay “associated fees” to use the NFC chip and enter into a “commercial agreement” that means only “authorized developers who meet certain industry and regulatory requirements and commit to Apple’s ongoing security and privacy standards” can access the system.

Apple said it will roll out the program in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the U.S. and U.K.—without mentioning the European Union, which has pushed hardest for the change.