Samsung Wallet to Add Native Stablecoin Support

Samsung said it will add stablecoin support to Samsung Wallet. The announcement came at the annual Galaxy Unpacked event in London on July 22, where the company showed a wallet mockup holding Circle's USDC.

What exactly did Samsung announce?

Samsung product manager Lee Dinham said on stage that Samsung Wallet will expand beyond cash and savings to handle new forms of digital value, including stablecoins. He added that the move would make Samsung one of the first major smartphone makers to bring native stablecoin support directly into a device.

How does this fit Samsung's earlier crypto moves?

The company has worked with crypto assets for years. Back in 2019, Samsung built the Knox vault into Galaxy phones, a hardware-isolated storage unlocked only by PIN or fingerprint, with support for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron and Stellar. In 2021, the vault gained the ability to link hardware wallets such as the Ledger Nano S.

Last October, Samsung expanded its deal with crypto exchange Coinbase, giving more than 75 million US Galaxy owners the ability to buy crypto directly inside Samsung Wallet. Drew Blackard, the company's senior vice president of mobile product management, called Samsung Wallet a tool trusted by millions of Galaxy users.

What is still unclear?

Samsung has not said whether the feature will be custodial, meaning the company or a partner holds users' private keys, or non-custodial, where users alone control their funds. The company also has not confirmed Circle as an official partner, even though USDC was the token shown on stage.

• Launch date: not announced.
• No stablecoin partner has been officially confirmed.
• The blockchain behind the feature has not been disclosed.
• Whether funds will be held custodially remains unknown.

Why are big brands turning to stablecoins now?

The total stablecoin market is nearing $310 billion a year after the GENIUS Act passed, the US law that set rules for issuing dollar-pegged tokens.

Samsung's announcement landed alongside the launch of the Galaxy Card, the company's first US credit card, issued by Barclays on the Visa network with 5% cash back on Samsung purchases and 3% on Samsung Wallet transactions.

Visa's Kirk Stuart said the card reflects how users expect payments built directly into the digital services they use every day.

What does this mean for Galaxy owners?

If Samsung follows through, Galaxy owners will be able to hold USDC and other stablecoins next to their payment cards and boarding passes in one app, without installing separate wallets. It extends a path the company started with its Bitcoin vault and hardware wallets like Ledger.

Until Samsung names a partner and a date, the real scale of the feature is hard to judge. Still, the fact that a smartphone maker with billions of devices is talking about stablecoins on stage shows how far the technology has moved from a niche tool toward everyday payment infrastructure.