#GENIUSActPass Stripe announced this week a new strategic partnership with Shopify, aimed at enabling merchants on the e-commerce platform to accept payments in USDC, Circle's stablecoin. This new offering is available in its Connect service and will initially involve merchants from 34 countries.

Specifically, Shopify merchants will be able to accept payments in USDC on Base, the layer 2 developed by Coinbase. By default, the payment will arrive in the seller's bank account in their local currency; however, those who wish can directly cash out USDC to an external wallet.