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The big processor Worldpay said early Tuesday it will work with BVNK, a stablecoin-technology company, to provide to Worldpay clients what the companies say will be “nearly instant global payouts” in stablecoins. The service will be available to clients in the United States and Europe starting in the second half of this year.
Meanwhile, the fintech OwtTing Group announced it has added features based on artificial intelligence to its OwlPay Harbor platform, which offers application programming interfaces for payments based on stablecoins and other digital currencies. And, at the same time, the online marketplace PSQ Holdings Inc. said it is embarking on what it calls a digital-asset strategy that could include allocations into stablecoins, Bitcoin, and other digital currencies.
The moves come as stablecoins in particular take on mainstream applications and have attracted the attention of lawmakers look to create a federal legal framework for the digital assets, whose value is tied to national currencies such as the dollar. The Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act legislation won support in the U.S. Senate last week after receiving a 66-32 vote to move forward, though it has not yet been voted on in the House of Representatives.
In the Worldpay application, the processor will offer its stablecoin service to clients that are already linked to the company through its payouts platform, which offers payouts now in 135 fiat currencies. Worldpay has been moving toward digital currency processing for some time. In 2022, the company started allowing certain merchants to receive settlements in the USDC stablecoin, while a year later it also worked with Visa Inc. to speed funding from the network.
The new service emerges as Worldpay looks to become part of Global Payments Inc. following Global’s agreement to buy the processor from FIS Inc. and the private-equity firm GTCR for $22.7 billion.
OwlTing, a global blockchain company with U.S. offices in Arlington, Va., said its AI-based technical support will aid developers looking to ease adopting the company’s APIs. The technology supports transfers of funds in the USDC stablecoin and in U.S. dollars. The company says it has achieved compliance with regulations in more than 30 U.S. states.
Ultimately, the move will enable banks, digital wallets, and other fintechs to support stablecoin payments on their own products, OwlTing says. The new AI-based features come as stablecoin assets have climbed to an all-time high of $240 billion, with forecasts indicating they could reach $2 trillion by 2028, according to data cited by OwlTing. The Taiwan-based company says it plans to win money-transfer licenses in all U.S. states
Meanwhile, the PSQ marketplace says it is looking to the future in its embrace of what it calls “non-traditional payment methods” such as Bitcoin and stablecoins. These digital assets “will increasingly and rapidly gain market share in the coming years,” notes PSQ chairman and chief executive Michael Seifert, in a statement.
“We are actively exploring the integration of stablecoins into our Payments & Marketplace ecosystem, which we view as the most effective cryptocurrency strategy to transform payment systems, enhance customer engagement in our network, protect privacy and security, and boost our fintech product offerings,” says Seifert, in a statement.
For now, the company is concentrating on the integration of stablecoins, Seifert says. In contrast to stablecoins, digital assets like Bitcoin are subject to market forces that can drive their values up or down, sometimes dramatically.
