Samsung announced at Galaxy Unpacked in London on July 22 that its Samsung Wallet app will add native stablecoin support, displaying a mockup featuring Circle’s USDC. The company did not specify a launch date, the issuing partners, or the underlying blockchain networks.
“Samsung Wallet will expand beyond cash and savings. It will embrace new forms of digital value, including stablecoins,” said Lee Dinham, Samsung’s product manager, during the keynote. He added that the move positions Samsung as one of the first major smartphone manufacturers to offer native stablecoin functionality.
“This will make Samsung one of the first major mobile brands to bring native stablecoins to a smartphone, enabling fast and trusted digital value transfers,” Dinham said.
Stablecoins are tokens designed to maintain a steady value, typically pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar and backed by cash or short-term government securities. Samsung’s presentation highlighted USDC, the second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization, though the company stopped short of confirming Circle as a formal partner.
Samsung has not clarified whether the implementation will be custodial—where a third party holds user funds—or non-custodial, where users retain exclusive control over their private keys.
Samsung’s Long Crypto Résumé
This development builds on a years-long trajectory. Samsung first integrated crypto storage into Galaxy devices in 2019 via Knox, a hardware-isolated vault secured by PIN or biometrics, later adding support for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, and Stellar. In 2021, the company enabled direct connectivity with hardware wallets such as the Ledger Nano S.
Last October, Samsung deepened its partnership with Coinbase, embedding crypto purchasing directly into Samsung Wallet for 75 million U.S. Galaxy users. “Samsung Wallet is a trusted tool to millions of Galaxy users,” said Drew Blackard, Samsung’s senior vice president of mobile product management, at the time.
The stablecoin initiative arrives alongside the Galaxy Card, Samsung’s first U.S. credit card issued by Barclays on the Visa network. The card offers 5% cash back on Samsung purchases and 3% on Samsung Wallet transactions. Visa’s Kirk Stuart noted the card reflects how “consumers expect payments to be embedded into the digital experiences they use every day.” Samsung described the broader push as a “secured payments and rewards experience.”
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