Stablecoins are heading into millions of pockets. Samsung is bringing Solana-based stablecoins directly into Samsung Wallet, letting users send money worldwide almost instantly for a fraction of a cent. The rollout starts in the US at the end of the month, reaching 82 million users before going global. Joining us at Token 2049 in Singapore is Vibhu Norby, Chief Product Officer at the Solana Foundation. Vibhu, thank you very much for joining us. I understand today is a big day for you.
In my opinion, this is not just a big day for Solana. It is a big day for the industry. This is a historic moment for the adoption of crypto globally. We just announced together with Samsung that Samsung is bringing Solana stablecoins directly into Samsung Wallet — allowing people to transfer money instantly anywhere in the world from an app that they already have. This is going to roll out in the US at the end of the month to 82 million Samsung users, and then over time will go global as well.
What does this mean for Samsung users who already have wallets on their phones?
It is fundamentally a new way to use money. In the wallet, you will be able to transfer money to a friend somewhere internationally and do it for basically free — fractions of a penny. There are no banking hours, no weekends, no cut-off times. You can send money any time and it just gets delivered to your recipient. In the Samsung wallet, it is kind of a magical experience. You do not even really experience the crypto part — it just works behind the scenes. If you send money from the US to Singapore, they have structured partnerships in 60 countries where users can basically send that directly to their bank account in fiat. This is the crypto adoption we were promised for a long time — where it just works in the background, the way you expect it to.
Is this the move that takes stablecoins into everyday finance?
This is the first major domino that has fallen. On Solana we have announced Western Union and MoneyGram, and we know Visa and some of these companies are using stablecoins. But what is important about this one is it is directly in the hands of consumers. It is pre-installed on devices people are using every day to pay for things and to send money. This is crypto as infrastructure — not a branding opportunity. It is very real and tangible.
Will the user know they are using blockchain?
It is designed to be mostly invisible. That is what makes this really unique. Samsung deeply wanted the user experience to feel simple and intuitive — where your money is now just digital and it kind of upgraded itself overnight. In the same place where you have your car keys and your credit cards and all your other wallet things, the money there is now just stablecoins.
How does this change the competitive landscape for banks and traditional payment providers?
That is why I consider Samsung to be the first domino. The smartphone business is one of the most competitive businesses in the world — Samsung and Apple and other manufacturers fighting feature for feature. There is a really awesome flywheel starting here. Samsung announced not only are they bringing stablecoins to the wallet — they are also planning to bring stablecoins to payment terminals. So my digital money will be able to pay for coffee. The next step is everyone else has to support the same infrastructure. The acceleration from here is going to be tremendous.
What is the next step for Solana in bringing blockchain payments to a global audience?
Stablecoins are the gateway drug in a way. The retail use case — payments, transfers — is the understood thing. But what is also happening on-chain on Solana is a lot of frontier financial use cases including trading, DeFi, and equities. Once you experience digital money and how fast it is, you start to want other things that work as well as that in the financial system. And that is what Solana has built. We are opening the door to everything happening in crypto.
Thank you for coming on.
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
