A Checkout for Stablecoins Emerges, As Does Bitcoin on the Installment Plan

Exodus Movement Inc. has launched Exodus Checkout, which allows businesses to accept dollar-denominated stablecoins. The rollout is starting in Argentina, with plans to expand across Latin America. The launch is taking place in partnership with DGO, the streaming platform for DirecTV in Latin America.

The move comes as stablecoins—digital currency whose value is tied to a national currency, often the U.S. dollar— are gaining popular awareness worldwide, while rules are emerging to govern their use and acceptance. The digital currency is particularly visible in countries where the value of national currencies is volatile. The Argentine peso, once one of the world’s most volatile currencies, is trading at roughly 1,525 to the U.S. dollar, a value that has dropped approximately 7% in the past year.

Omaha, Neb.-based Exodus, a publicly held company, positions its checkout as an approach to popularizing dollar-backed stablecoins by providing technology to ease merchant acceptance. Its strategy includes a partnership with DGO, a streaming platform in Latin America that allows users to pay for subscriptions with stablecoins.

At checkout, Exodus users can choose stablecoins as the preferred payment method and begin payment from their wallet. “As the way consumers manage and spend money evolves, the payment experience should evolve with it,” says Federico Suarez, director of OTT platform marketing at Waiken ILW, in a statement. “Adding stablecoin payments gives customers another way to subscribe to the entertainment they love without changing the experience they already know.”

Waiken is a digital media company that manages operations across Latin America and the Caribbean on behalf of its Buenos Aires-based owner, The Werthein Group.

In related crypto news, BTCNow has launched a plan by which buyers of bitcoin can lock in a price and pay for the digital currency in 60 equal monthly installments. BitGo provides custody for the bitcoin, which is held in trust until it’s fully paid for. At bitcoin’s current price of $86,535, the plan would require monthly payments of $1,442. The price remains fixed during the payment period, Wilmington, Del.-based BTCNow says.

“Pay-over-time has changed how people think about paying for everything from electronics to travel, but bitcoin ownership has largely remained an all-or-nothing purchase,” says Marc Dumpff, founder of BTCNow and its chief executive, in a statement. “We think there’s room for another model.”