Crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) is venturing further into the global payments business with the launch of Coinbase Payments, the company said in a Wednesday blog post.
The service, built on Coinbase’s Ethereum layer-2 network Base, is already live with ecommerce platform Shopify and was designed to bring stablecoin payments to merchants, supporting around-the-clock USDC transactions without requiring any blockchain know-how, the blog post said.
Coinbase shares rallied following the announcement and were up 16% during the session. Circle (CRCL), issuer of the USDC stablecoin, also surged 25% to a fresh record.
The company's move aligns with the growing trend of stablecoins reshaping the global payments market. Payments companies such as Stripe and PayPal debut products that use blockchain tech under the hood for payments. Meanwhile, crypto native companies like USDC issuer Circle with its payment network are also entering the increasingly competitive field.