Good morning/evening

Well I got excited for a minute or two when I saw the news that Samsung is bringing stablecoin payments into its wallet, and Solana is one of the blockchains helping to make it happen. I have a Samsung phone and I am quite keen on Solana and my DePin experience said to me 'possible use case', it would also be good if the price of SOL could suddenly go to the moon lol.

Let's face it, we have been talking about mass adoption for years, but we also know that mass adoption is not easy for a lot of people, can you remember setting up your first wallet and making your first transaction? I can and it was scary! Make sure you have the right chain, make sure you have gas and make sure you have the right address or your crypto can be lost, yep check every letter and number, even now some of us that are experienced still make errors.

But if all that is done for you then perhaps there is a chance, so Samsung announced on 7 October that it would be introducing stablecoin functionality into Samsung Wallet during the last week of October 2026. But, (yes there is always a but) the initial rollout is aimed at eligible users in the United States, with the technology available across 82 million compatible Galaxy devices. Yes great news if you are in the USA, there is not even a hint of a date for Europe yet!

 It means the functionality will be available to a potentially enormous number of people without them having to download another crypto wallet.Users will be able to send USDC to compatible crypto wallets internationally, while transfers to eligible bank accounts in more than 60 countries will allow recipients to receive their local currency.

Solana is providing some of the blockchain infrastructure, alongside Sui, while Bastion and Coinbase are handling the custody and payment infrastructure. There are no Samsung transfer fees for sending USDC to compatible wallets, although other providers may charge fees. Transfers into bank accounts are a different matter, with fees depending on the destination.

It is worth pointing out that paying for your shopping by tapping your Samsung phone with USDC is not part of the initial launch but Samsung has mentioned this as a possible future feature.

To use this you will also have to complete KYC uuugh.

I have been holding SOL since buying after the FTX collapse, and despite all the ups and downs, it remains my second largest crypto holding after Bitcoin.I have written about Solana quite a few times because I genuinely like the ecosystem. I have used Jupiter, Drift and Kamino, played around with NFTs and followed projects such as Helium and Render. 

But one thing Solana has always had going for it is speed and cheap transactions, that is why IMO, if you are going to use blockchain technology for everyday payments, those two things are rather important lol, nobody wants to pay several dollars in fees to send somebody $10, or wait around wondering whether their transaction has gone through. 

So this will not make everyone a crypto investor but people will be using blockchain technology without even realising they are using it, the blockchain simply works in the background.

Now, anyone who has read my articles before will know that I am not exactly the biggest fan of traditional banking and international money transfers are one area where I think crypto has a genuine opportunity as sending money between countries can still involve fees, currency conversion charges and delays, especially when different banking systems are involved. Stablecoins have the potential to make this process much simpler, there will still be fees and exchange rates to consider though.But the actual movement of value can take place using blockchain infrastructure rather than relying entirely on the old banking rails.

Now here comes the part where I am a little less enthusiastic.I am a big believer in self custody. I use hardware wallets, and one of the things I like about crypto is being able to control my own assets and Samsung's new stablecoin service is not really offering that same experience. Bastion is providing the custody infrastructure, with Coinbase Prime acting as the sub custodian. In other words, somebody else is looking after the crypto.

There will also be identity verification, regulatory requirements and restrictions on who can use the service, so this is not exactly the permissionless financial system that attracted many of us to crypto in the first place. Although a lot of people are not going to want the responsibility of looking after their own private keys. They want something familiar, convenient and preferably with somebody to complain to if things go wrong.

I would love to say that Samsung bringing Solana to millions of phones means SOL is about to take off and go to the moon but people will be transferring USDC, not necessarily buying SOL and because Solana transactions are so cheap, even a large increase in payment activity does not automatically mean enormous amounts of SOL will be needed to pay transaction fees.

How many Samsung users will actually use the service? Will the fees and exchange rates make it competitive with existing payment apps? Will people trust stablecoins? And how quickly will Samsung expand beyond the United States? The announcement is exciting, but actual usage will tell us whether it is a success or not.

I am still very much a Bitcoin girl when it comes to long term savings, but I have always thought Solana had a lot to offer (excluding the memes) when it comes to apps and payments so I certainly will not be rushing out to buy more SOL just because Samsung has made a partnership announcement. Again though, only time will tell if this is a great idea or a big fat fail.

What do you think? Is this a good thing and would you use it if it was available to you?

As always, thank you for reading and please feel free to comment.