Digital assets security platform Fireblocks today announced the public launch of a new suite of tools designed to enable payment service providers (PSPs) with the ability to provide an end-to-end solution for merchants, entrepreneurs, and creators to accept, manage and settle global crypto transactions.
Dubbed the Payments Engine, the new solution has been in a testing phase for the past six months and saw digital payments provider Checkout.out join as the first design partner and participant of the pilot, settling $1 billion in transactions to date, according to Fireblocks.
At today’s launch, Worldpay—a payment processing company that was acquired by Fidelity Information Services (FIS) in 2019—has joined as a network partner and will also help Fireblocks iterate and improve the Payments Engine.
“In the last several years, critical work has been done in the space to address pieces of the payments system,” Michael Shaulov, CEO of Fireblocks, said in a statement. “From stablecoin settlement to cross-border payments to payouts for creators, we believe that the payments system must be addressed holistically, especially as we see digital assets continue to proliferate into mainstream technologies and the global economy."
Fireblocks supports 1,300 tokens
As a blockchain-agnostic solution, the Payments Engine currently supports all 42 networks and more than 1,300 tokens available on Fireblocks, with the number of cryptocurrencies available set to increase as the Fireblocks platform onboards more blockchains and tokens.
“The Payments Engine allows for fiat-to-crypto merchant settlements as well as fiat-to-fiat cross-border transfers, using digital assets in the middle to solve for the hardest leg of the payments process: moving funds across borders,” Ran Goldi VP of Payments at Fireblocks told Decrypt via email.
Merchants that enable their customers to pay in crypto may opt to get paid out in fiat, while creators who get paid for engagement on their content can get paid out in crypto with an option to convert the payout to fiat through local partners on the Fireblocks Network.
The types of tokens used to settle payments with merchants depend on the payment service providers and what types of cryptocurrencies they make available for their customers, though.
According to Fireblocks, currently, both Worldpay and Checkout.com are primarily using the USDC stablecoin to do merchant settlement.
Another advantage of the Payments Engine, as highlighted by Fireblocks, is that it allows merchants to accept cryptocurrencies as a payment method with significantly lower processing fees.
“While traditional card processors usually charge 1%-3% for every transaction, mostly to cover the card network fees they are required to pay to Visa/Mastercard, PSPs using crypto acceptance solutions are charging 0.2%-0.5% — an 80%+ reduction in fees,” said Goldi.
In the light of a July report by Deloitte saying that over 75% of retailers plan to adopt crypto payment services within the next two years, Nabil Manji, head of crypto and Web3 at FIS, expressed his enthusiasm about “a wide-scale shift among enterprises and consumers towards digital payment systems.”
“Together we will enable crypto-native and traditional businesses to accept, manage and settle digital assets so that they may choose their preferred currency for conducting business,” Manji said in a statement.