Summary
- Samsung announced at Galaxy Unpacked in London on July 22 that Samsung Wallet will incorporate native support for stablecoins, showcasing a mockup featuring Circle's USDC.
- This development builds on Samsung's previous efforts, including a Knox-based crypto wallet launched in 2019, hardware wallet support added in 2021, and an integration with Coinbase in October 2025, which reached 75 million U.S. Galaxy users.
- The announcement coincided with the introduction of the Galaxy Card, Samsung's debut credit card in collaboration with Barclays and Visa, as the global stablecoin market approaches $310 billion under the GENIUS Act enacted a year ago.
Samsung aims to integrate stablecoins alongside traditional travel essentials. At the Galaxy Unpacked event in London, the company revealed plans for Samsung Wallet—an application that currently manages payment cards, identification, and hotel keys—to include native stablecoin support. Specific details about the launch date, the stablecoin issuer, or the blockchain infrastructure were not disclosed.
Lee Dinham, Samsung's product manager, stated on stage, "Samsung Wallet will move beyond cash and savings to include new forms of digital value, such as stablecoins," emphasizing that this would position Samsung as one of the pioneering 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 added.
Stablecoins are digital tokens designed to maintain a stable value, typically pegged to one U.S. dollar, often backed by cash or short-term government securities. Samsung displayed a mockup of the wallet featuring Circle's USDC, the second-largest stablecoin by market capitalization, although it did not confirm Circle as a partner for this initiative.
Samsung has not clarified whether the stablecoin feature will be custodial—where Samsung or a third party manages user funds—or non-custodial, allowing users to retain sole control over their private keys and funds.
Samsung's Crypto Journey
This initiative is not a new venture for Samsung. The company integrated crypto storage into its Galaxy smartphones as early as 2019 with Knox, a secure hardware vault that can be accessed only via PIN or fingerprint. Subsequently, support for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tron, and Stellar was added. In 2021, Samsung enabled Galaxy users to link their hardware wallets, like the Ledger Nano S, directly to this vault.
In October of last year, Samsung strengthened its partnership with Coinbase, allowing crypto transactions to be conducted directly within Samsung Wallet for 75 million U.S. Galaxy users. Drew Blackard, the senior vice president of mobile product management at Samsung, remarked on the deal, stating, "Samsung Wallet is a trusted tool for millions of Galaxy users."
The announcement regarding stablecoin support came alongside the launch of the Galaxy Card, Samsung's first credit card in the U.S., issued by Barclays and utilizing the Visa network, which offers 5% cash back on Samsung purchases and 3% on transactions made via Samsung Wallet. Kirk Stuart from Visa noted that the card reflects consumer expectations for payments to be integrated into their daily digital experiences. Samsung framed this broader initiative as a "secured payments and rewards experience."