Ingenico brings Stablecoin payments to in-store checkout
Payment terminal provider Ingenico has partnered with WalletConnect Pay to enable in-store stablecoin payments in its point-of-sale (POS) system, in one of the most obvious signs of yet another push to bring cryptocurrency payments into everyday retail outlets.
In an announcement to Cointelegraph, Ingenico said the integration will allow customers to pay using stablecoins including USDC (USDC), EURC (EURC) and USDt (USDT) from WalletConnect-compatible mobile wallets without relying on traditional card networks.
Supported wallets include MetaMask and Trust Wallet. Transactions are initiated at the terminal and terminated via WalletConnect Pay's infrastructure.
Unlike crypto-linked cards that rely on Visa or MasterCard rails, the new setup allows for native stablecoin transactions. Payments are sent directly from the user's wallet, settlements flow to the merchant's payment providers, and they keep stablecoin as an alternative settlement rail instead of a card add-on.
Stablecoin payments without new hardware or protection
Ingenico's POS terminals are deployed in 120 countries. The company says it has 40 million terminals around the world that can support the feature, and the integration will provide instant global reach.
Ingenico says the integration is designed to work within the existing merchant payment stack, requiring no additional hardware upgrades or changes to the checkout counter.
While Ingenico claims that millions of terminals can support the feature, the company did not provide exact figures on how many merchants will pay stablecoin fees at launch.
The company said they prefer to enable adoption at individual merchants and their payment providers.
“Essentially any Ingenico merchant can accept crypto,” an Ingenico spokesperson told Cointelegraph, adding that availability depends on merchants and their payment providers enabling the option.
According to the spokesperson, merchants can also choose how they receive their money. When a customer pays in USDC, EURC or USDT, the merchant can decide to stay in stablecoins or convert to fiat based on their needs and trading preferences.
One of the common barriers to crypto payments in physical retail involves refunds. According to the spokesperson, refunds are processed through standard merchant business processes.
“Merchants will have the ability to issue refunds with a simple button click on the dashboard or through an automated process,” a spokesperson told Cointelegraph. “WalletConnect Pay is designed to ensure that users always pay to the correct network and minimize human errors.”
Payments and multi-chain support format release
WalletConnect CEO Jess Holgre told Cointelegraph that the store integration is designed to offer lower costs than traditional card payments, especially for cross-border transactions.
“The fees are very low across the board compared to traditional card rails,” Houlgrave told Cointelegraph, adding that pricing is structured to reflect the underlying costs, which can vary as merchants choose to absorb fiat.
Houlgrave said the payments were negotiated jointly by WalletConnect Pay, Ingenico and payment service providers. She said the model is designed to reward ecosystem participants. Combined with faster settlement times, the model also improves overall economics by reducing traders' working capital requirements, she said.
At launch, WalletConnect Pay supports stablecoin payments on several major blockchains, including the Ethereum mainnet, Base, Arbitrum, and Polygon. She told Cointelegraph that support for Optimism and Solana will soon follow.
While the initial focus is on stablecoins, Houlgrave says WalletConnect Pay is seeing demand for unstable crypto payments. “Stablecoins are the starting point for everyday payments, but adding assets like Bitcoin or ETH is on our roadmap,” she told Cointelegraph.
Related: Ethereum needs better decentralized stablecoins: Vitalik Buterin
Solving the need for stablecoin payments
The move reflects the rapid growth of Statcoins and the need to use them as a practical payment method.
Ingenico CEO Floris de Court said the company is seeing growing interest in stablecoin payments. “Our partnership with WalletConnect Pay provides this by giving our customers a way to accept digital currencies as easily as traditional cards,” he said.
According to Haseeb Qureshi, managing partner at crypto-focused venture capital firm Dragonfly, stablecoin payments are “one of the main themes of 2026,” a year in which crypto will be deeply integrated into payments.
On Friday, the Visa-linked stablecoin platform rained after a 30-fold card growth of 250 million dollars in 2025. The price of the round rained at almost $2 billion, bringing the company's total funding to 338 million dollars.
Magazine: China officially hates stablecoins, DBS trades Bitcoin options: Asia Express
