Shopify Customers Can Pay in USDC via Solana Pay

Shopify, a popular e-commerce platform, has recently included Solana Pay as one of their payment options. This development enables millions of merchants to accept cryptocurrency transactions, starting with the USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin.

TechCrunch reported that Solana intends to introduce other altcoins in the following months, such as its native SOL token and the meme token Bonk. Solana Labs’ Josh Fried believed that the combination of digital assets and payment solutions is the “killer app for crypto” and encourages everyone to invest in it.

Fried has stated that Solana Pay can significantly decrease transaction costs compared to credit card processing fees. The network’s typical charge is $0.00025 per transaction, whereas credit card processing fees can range from 1.5% to 3.5%. During the previous epoch, Solana’s users paid an average transaction fee of 0.000009664 SOL.

According to Shopify, around 10% of all e-commerce transactions in the US, which amounts to $444 billion of the global e-commerce market, are conducted through their platform. The company has been incorporating Web3 solutions into its operations, such as blockchain commerce tools specifically designed for Web3-based stores and features that enable connection to cryptocurrency wallets.

The Solana blockchain will have a chance to demonstrate its capabilities through its use by Shopify. In the past, Solana faced challenges with reliability and uptime, which co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko referred to as a “curse” linked to the network’s low-cost transactions.

Solana Pay, launched in February 2022, is a payment infrastructure that enables merchants to accept and process payment transactions across various digital assets in a peer-to-peer manner. Solana Labs, Checkout.com, Circle, and Citcon collaborated on the platform, with Phantom providing wallet integrations.