Coinbase Widens Access to Crypto B2B Payments

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is expanding the ways businesses can pay.

PayPal paid invoices to EY using the PayPal USD (PYUSD) stablecoin deposited into EY’s Coinbase Prime account, according to a Thursday (Oct. 3) news release.

Coinbase Prime is a brokerage platform that facilitates trades, custody and prime services, according to the platform’s website.

“An increasing number of Fortune 500 companies are approaching Coinbase to explore crypto payments,” Coinbase Director of Institutional Sales Steven Capozza said in the release. “Many are quickly moving from proof-of-concept exploration to full adoption.”

Stablecoins can make B2B payments and treasury management faster, cheaper and more efficient because they settle instantly, including across borders, according to the release. They can also offer rewards to holders, boosting workflows for companies and their vendors.

Like EY, Google Cloud and other companies have used Coinbase Prime to accept and custody crypto payments, the release said.

“Requiring terms like ‘net-30’ for invoice payments can restrict cash flow and negatively impact business operations,” PayPal Director of Market Development Steve Everett said in the release. “With digital currencies like stablecoins, payments can be made 24/7, funds transferred near instantly and settled in near real time — enabling businesses to put their money to work faster.”

The news came a month after Coinbase reported the first-ever crypto transaction between two artificial intelligence agents.

“AI agents cannot get bank accounts, but they can get crypto wallets,” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in a post on social platform X. “They can now use USDC on Base to transact with humans, merchants or other AIs. Those transactions are instant, global and free.

He said the transaction marked an “important step” in AIs performing useful work, which they haven’t been able to do because they couldn’t transact to acquire resources.

The CEO invited companies working on AIs and large language models that might benefit from having an integrated crypto wallet to conduct payments to integrate Coinbase’s wallet.

“And if you are a company that sells a service — get ready for your shopping cart to be AI checkout enabled,” Armstrong said.

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