Upcoming Apple iPhone feature to give merchants a way to accept crypto payments

cointelegraph.com:

Apple announced plans to launch Tap to Pay for iPhone, a new feature that effectively turns the smartphone into a point of sale (POS) device for businesses and merchants. So, what’s in it for crypto?

The announcement explains that with Tap to Pay, iPhone-owning merchants receive contactless payments by using their mobile devices as a POS machine thanks to the NFC technology.

According to Apple, the soon-to-be-launched Tap to Pay feature will extend support to “Apple Pay, contactless credit and debit cards and other digital wallets.” It basically means that, unless Apple places a direct barrier for it, customers who are using Coinbase Card, Crypto.com Visa Card or a similar payment card would be able to use their cryptocurrency holdings to make payments via Tap to Pay.

We just introduced Tap to Pay on iPhone, a great way for millions of small businesses to accept contactless payments right from their iPhone. It’s easy, secure, and will be coming out later this year. https://t.co/w6P6oS7grm

While Apple has announced Stripe, an Irish-American fintech, as the first platform to offer the Tap to Pay feature on iPhone, the company clarified that “additional payment platforms and apps will follow later this year.”

Back in Aug. 2021, major crypto exchange Coinbase integrated with Apple Pay and Google Pay, allowing users to purchase crypto assets on its platform. As Cointelegraph reported, the move allowed the United States-based customers to purchase crypto using bank-issued debit and credit cards via a mainstream payments platform, Apple Pay.

In June 2021, Coinbase launched Coinbase Card, enabling users to spend cryptocurrencies across mainstream avenues:

Following suit, crypto exchange Crypto.com launched a similar offering named