Samsung will enable USDC transfers inside Samsung Wallet for eligible US Galaxy users in the last week of October, extending stablecoin payments to 82 million compatible devices in the United States.

The company announced the feature on Wednesday. Users will be able to send USDC to compatible crypto wallets internationally and transfer funds to eligible bank accounts in more than 60 countries, where recipients receive money in their local currency.

What are the terms for users?

Access requires identity verification. Samsung said it will charge no fees on transfers to external crypto wallets. International bank transfers, by contrast, will incur fees — a pricing structure that mirrors conventional remittance rails while positioning wallet-to-wallet stablecoin movement as the zero-cost entry point.

The rollout covers the US market first. Samsung did not announce a timeline for other jurisdictions.

Who is building the rails?

Bastion will provide the stablecoin account and payment infrastructure underpinning the service. Coinbase will act as a sub-custodian through Coinbase Prime Vault, placing a regulated US custodian inside the transaction flow.

Samsung also named Solana and Sui as technical partners, signaling that the service will operate across multiple high-throughput networks rather than a single chain. The company did not specify which network will settle transfers first or how routing between them will work.

The move places Samsung in direct competition with payment incumbents and fintech stablecoin initiatives, while leveraging a hardware footprint — 82 million US devices — that few wallet providers can match. For Circle, issuer of USDC, the integration represents one of the largest consumer distribution channels the stablecoin has secured with a device manufacturer.

Why does a phone maker want stablecoin rails?

Samsung's interest in stablecoin infrastructure predates this rollout. A Samsung unit has been exploring stablecoin infrastructure with the operator of Upbit, South Korea's largest crypto exchange, suggesting the Wallet feature is one piece of a broader payments strategy rather than a standalone experiment.

The operational logic is straightforward. Samsung Wallet already handles payments, digital IDs and keys on Galaxy devices. Adding USDC transfers turns the app into a remittance and self-custody on-ramp, with identity verification gating access — a compliance posture consistent with US money-transmission expectations.

For Bastion, the deal is a flagship distribution win. For Coinbase, the sub-custodian role extends its institutional custody business into consumer-facing flows at scale.

What happens next?

The feature goes live for eligible US Galaxy users in the final week of October. Adoption will depend on whether users clear the identity-verification hurdle and whether the fee structure on bank transfers keeps the service competitive with existing remittance providers. A subsequent expansion beyond the US, and further detail on Solana and Sui integration, would mark the next test of whether Samsung intends to make stablecoin transfers a permanent, global component of its payments stack.