In Brief:
- Speaking at Galaxy Unpacked in London on July 22, Samsung product manager Lee Dinham confirmed that native stablecoin support is coming to Samsung Wallet.
- A mockup shown on stage featured Circle (official site)’s USDC alongside send, receive and top-up options — yet Samsung disclosed no issuer, no launch date, no blockchain and no markets.
- The pledge places dollar tokens inside the default wallet of a handset line that already channels crypto purchases through Coinbase for over 75 million users in the U.S.
Stablecoins are coming to Samsung Wallet, product manager Lee Dinham told the Galaxy Unpacked audience in London on July 22 — the manufacturer’s first outright commitment to the asset class.
“Samsung Wallet will expand beyond cash and savings. It will embrace new forms of digital value, including stablecoins,” Dinham said.
JUST IN: Samsung reveals plans to bring native stablecoin support, the first in smartphone giants.
Samsung says its Samsung Wallet will support new forms of digital value, including stablecoins, claiming the move will make it "one of the first major mobile brands" to do so.
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He staked out a claim on timing as well. “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.
What Samsung didn’t say
Just about everything a builder would want to know. No launch date was given, no stablecoin issuer was named, no supported chains were listed and no regional availability was outlined.
Whether balances will be custodial or non-custodial also went unmentioned. Nor did Samsung specify if they will live in Knox Vault — the hardware-isolated enclave that arrived with the Galaxy S21 in 2021 — or in Samsung Blockchain Keystore, which debuted on the Galaxy S10 in 2019.
The Wallet interface demo put Circle's USDC on screen with send, receive and top-up controls. A partnership has not been confirmed by either company. According to Samsung, Wallet’s financial features will be safeguarded by Knox, its security platform, with end-to-end encryption.
The credit card came with it
The stablecoin announcement arrived in tandem with the Samsung Galaxy Card, the firm’s debut credit card, issued by Barclays US Consumer Bank and running on the Visa network. Applications went live July 22 online and across U.S. Samsung retail stores.
Cardholders earn 5% cash rewards on purchases made directly from Samsung, 3% on Wallet purchases, 2% on streaming services such as Netflix, Disney+ and Spotify, and 1% elsewhere, with no annual fee. Spend $2,000 within the first 90 days as a new cardholder and $200 in bonus cash rewards follows. The product ships both as a virtual card and as a metal physical card carrying a black Samsung logo.
Visa’s Kirk Stuart said the card brings together “Samsung’s innovation, Barclays’ co-brand capabilities, and Visa’s trusted network” for embedded payments.
Not Samsung’s first crypto move
Crypto storage landed on Galaxy handsets back in 2019 via Knox, a hardware-isolated vault opened with a PIN or fingerprint, with Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron and Stellar support arriving over time. Hardware wallet linking, including the Ledger Nano S, followed in 2021.
The company broadened its Coinbase arrangement last October, embedding crypto purchases within Samsung Wallet for more than 75 million U.S. Galaxy owners. Then in May, Samsung Securities, Samsung SDS and Samsung Card agreed to take a combined 4% stake in Dunamu — which operates Upbit, South Korea’s largest crypto exchange — for 612.8 billion won, roughly $408 million.
Worldwide stablecoin supply now stands near $310 billion, a year on from the GENIUS Act.
Distribution is the point
In the U.S., Samsung Pay lags well behind. Projections put Apple Pay at 71.6 million U.S. proximity payment users in 2026 and Google Pay at 42.6 million, versus 15 million for Samsung Pay. Dinham presented payments, rewards and digital assets as a single package — “the foundation of a connected financial ecosystem across Galaxy devices and services” — and characterised the product as “bringing everything you need to carry together, making your Galaxy your everyday wallet.”
Stablecoin rules still differ from one jurisdiction to the next, which may limit availability beyond the U.S.
Shares in Samsung Electronics ended Friday at 249,500 won, a drop of 7.6%.
Nothing equivalent has come from Apple. Apple Wallet offers no native stablecoin support, and the company has issued no statement indicating any is on the way.