Kate Irwin

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Coinbase announced a stablecoin payment option on Shopify, as well as an American Express credit card, during yesterday’s State of Crypto Summit.&nbsp;



Buyers making online purchases from an estimated two million businesses using Shopify may soon see <a href="https://www.shopify.com/news/stablecoins-on-shopify">USDC on Base</a> as a payment option when checking out, and will have to approve those payments via a third-party crypto wallet.



Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke said during one talk that what a user sees when buying items through the ecommerce site isn’t the whole story. Clicking the “Pay” button initiates many steps on the backend, and adding a price-volatile crypto token can make that even more complicated.



“Stablecoins are obviously key here,” Lutke said.



That said, Shopify has added different types of crypto payment options before — and even tried out offering bitcoin payments <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/markets/2013/11/09/shopify-officially-integrates-bitcoin-as-a-payment-option-for-its-70000-merchants">way back in 2013</a> when it had about 70,000 online stores using its platform.&nbsp;



Shopify’s <a href="https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/payments/additional-payment-methods/cryptocurrency">site</a> already lists Solana Pay, Crypto.com, Strike, and half a dozen other crypto payment integrations as options for businesses to choose to opt into. It’s just not clear how many Shopify merchants are actually going for these options.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">Platforms using <a href="https://twitter.com/stripe?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Stripe</a> Connect can now offer stablecoin payments to their users! This means businesses can: 🌎 reach more markets 💰 at lower cost First out of the gate is <a href="https://twitter.com/Shopify?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@shopify</a>, enabling millions of their merchants to accept payments in USDC! <a href="https://t.co/SDoABDz5uI">pic.twitter.com/SDoABDz5uI</a>&mdash; Jen (@BackseatVC) <a href="https://twitter.com/BackseatVC/status/1933231262585475143?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 12, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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The USDC on Base payment option is first rolling out in early access, with plans to expand that rollout this year. Lutke <a href="https://x.com/tobi/status/1933237327633265064">said</a> Shopify is also exploring adding 1% cashback, too, as an extra perk.&nbsp;



Stripe’s tech helped make this happen. Merchants can decide whether they want to keep their earnings in USDC or convert it into their native fiat currency.



Both during the livestream and afterwards across different X <a href="https://x.com/ilikesymmetry/status/1933232617991856415">threads</a>, Coinbase execs and staff pointed out that high credit card fees cutting into merchants’ profits are a point of frustration that crypto could solve. They also emphasized that crypto can go across borders to be a truly global payments option.&nbsp;



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">Going premium</h3>



Somewhat ironically, though, Coinbase unveiled its American Express card yesterday.&nbsp;



The Coinbase One Card <a href="https://x.com/coinbase/status/1933237429193806033">uses</a> Amex’s network and isn’t free — but they’re promising 2-4% bitcoin back per purchase. The card will only be available in the US, and will launch sometime this fall. It requires an active Coinbase One Basic ($5 a month or $50 annually) or Coinbase One ($30 a month) subscription in order to apply for the card and keep it valid.



Amex is known for being a premium credit card company with some of the <a href="https://www.fool.com/money/research/average-credit-card-processing-fees-costs-america/">highest fees</a> for merchants.&nbsp;



It’s also known among Amex holders that it can be difficult to find businesses who accept the card outside of the US. (For example, my fiancé and I absolutely struggled earlier this year to find anyone who took Amex during a trip to South Africa. But all shops and restaurants we visited accepted Visa.)&nbsp;



It’s partly in the name: American Express.&nbsp;&nbsp;



American Express sees its brand as increasingly catering to a younger audience <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-06-11/american-express-s-gen-z-customer-spending-grew-by-40-from-2024?srnd=undefined">willing to spend</a> on something that feels like the luxury option. Coinbase also sees itself as a “premium” brand among crypto companies, Coinbase Ventures exec Shan Aggarwal mentioned during the livestream.



I don’t necessarily disagree. Coinbase has long had some of the best user experience product flows and product designs in crypto — though the fallout from a recently-revealed <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/coinbase-breach-fallout-data-exposed">data breach</a> may have eroded some trust in the brand.



For credit card nerds: the Coinbase One card is expected to weigh 17 grams, which is reportedly the same weight as the invite-only Amex Centurion card that costs thousands a year.



<h3 class="wp-block-heading">The audience</h3>



The Coinbase One <a href="https://www.coinbase.com/one">subscription</a> is most ideal for frequent traders who want no-fee Coinbase trades, more staking rewards, and prioritized customer service.



“Amex plays extremely well to Millennials, GenZ, the younger generations,” said Amex SVP of Global Network Services Will Stredwick, who sees crypto as “so obviously becoming mainstream.”&nbsp;



A 2024 PolicyGenius survey <a href="https://www.policygenius.com/life-insurance/2024-financial-planning-survey-millennials-gen-z-money/">found</a> that 22% of Millennials surveyed (now between roughly ages 28 to 43) owned crypto, followed by 20% of GenZ (now between ages 19 and 27).&nbsp;



But just 10% of Gen X and 5% of Boomers said they owned crypto.



The Coinbase One Amex is expected to release this fall. It joins a lineup of other crypto payment cards, including crypto debit cards, credit cards, and others that fall somewhere in-between. This year, we’ve seen a slew of crypto card announcements.&nbsp;



There’s a MetaMask Mastercard, a Gemini bitcoin rewards Mastercard, an <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/avalanche-visa-card-payments">Avalanche Visa</a>, a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solayer-launches-crypto-rewards-card">Solayer Visa</a>, and others.



All of these cards beg the question: Was crypto ever trying to get away from the traditional financial system? Or has the industry decided, collectively, that the best way to beat the Visas and Amexes of the world was to join them?



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American Express

Coinbase unveils Amex card, Shopify integration

Casey Wagner

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 <ul>
 <li>American Express CEO said that crypto is an asset class similar to gold, but the company has no plans to offer a crypto-linked card </li>
 <li>AmEx may explore crypto with membership rewards points</li>
 </ul>
 
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Despite digital assets’ status as a gold-like asset class, American Express is not planning on offering clients a cryptocurrency-linked credit card anytime soon, AmEx CEO Stephen Squeri said Monday.  



<blockquote class="wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow">“I look at crypto really as more of an asset class, I sort of view it as gold,” Squeri said during Yahoo Finance’s <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/american-express-ceo-outlook-crypto-185757086.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">All Market Summit</a>. “I don’t see it as really something that’s going to make inroads from a credit card perspective, or even a debit card perspective, in terms of payment,” </blockquote>



The infrastructure around digital assets needs to become more substantial and the asset class is currently too volatile to pursue this opportunity, Squeri said.&nbsp;



The news comes shortly after Squeri said that cryptocurrencies will not disrupt AmEx’s current business model during the company’s third-quarter earnings call Friday. 



“I don’t see any point where crypto is going to be a threat to card payments,” he said during the call.&nbsp;



Just as AmEx customers do not use their credit cards to purchase securities, Squeri said, he does not expect them to focus on buying cryptocurrencies with their cards either.&nbsp;



There might be other cryptocurrency-related opportunities for customers down the line, Squeri said. These could include redeeming rewards points for digital assets and the company is involved with using AmEx cards for stablecoins, he said.&nbsp;



The announcement comes as <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/mastercard-to-offer-crypto-credit-debit-cards/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Mastercard announced</a> its plans to offer clients cryptocurrency-linked credit and debit cards Monday.



​​“We want to offer all of our partners the ability to more easily add crypto services to whatever it is they’re doing,” Sherri Haymond, Mastercard’s executive vice president of digital partnerships, said in an <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/25/mastercard-says-any-bank-or-merchant-on-its-vast-network-can-soon-offer-crypto-services.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">interview</a>. “Our partners, be they banks, fintechs or merchants can offer their customers the ability to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrency through an integration with the Baktt platform.”