Apple's Decision to Grant Third-Party Apps Access to NFC Connectivity Could Benefit Crypto Industry

Apple recently announced that it will soon allow third party developers from countries in the European Union (EU) and select other regions to access the NFC technology on iPhone, on an upcoming beta build of iOS 18.1. This technology that supports contactless payments is currently restricted to Apple Pay and Apple Wallet. This decision could prove to be a shot in the arm for crypto firms, and could pave the way for Web3 wallet services to offer tap-to-pay functionality.

Circle Co-Founder and CEO Jeremy Allaire urged wallet developers to work on support for Apple's NFC payments technology, following the announcement by the iPhone maker earlier this week. Circle is the firm that issues the USDC stablecoin pegged to the US dollar. At the time of publishing this story, USDC's market capitalisation stood at $34.6 billion (roughly Rs. 2,90,934 crore) and over 34 million tokens are currently in circulation.

“Tap to pay using USDC on iPhones incoming soon,” Allaire said on X. Crypto enthusiasts also responded to the Circle CEO's post, with some predicting that this service could propel crypto-based payments on the iPhone.

In another post on X, Allaire said that with Apple expanding the access to the NFC feature to third party developers will enable them to support tap-to-pay transactions on Web3 wallet and crypto wallet apps.

“If an iOS wallet that supports USDC enables this, they could enable a UX (interface) where a receiving device could receive the transaction info via a tap. This would allow the Point-of-Sale to tell an iPhone what blockchain address it will accept USDC on, or the amount to pay, and then the iPhone-based wallet app could prompt the user to confirm a payment (like with FaceID) and initiate a transaction over the blockchain to settle the USDC,” Allaire said, adding that combining NFC with low-fee blockchains could elevate direct to merchant payments through crypto assets like USDC.

Cryptos Consultancy CEO Ali Jamal called Apple's decision to provide access to iPhone NFC functionality a game changing move via a post on LinkedIn.

“Apple has just opened its NFC chip to third-party apps with the release of iOS 18.1, setting the stage for a new era in crypto payments. It is a watershed moment for the industry. This move extends beyond USDC. It facilitates payments with other stablecoins, NFTs, and more, leveraging high-performance blockchains like Solana and Avalanche for seamless, low-fee transactions,” she said.

Jamal further noted that this development could make crypto payments as easily accessible and accepted as traditional payments.

Crypto Payments on Apple's Platform

The iPhone maker, has time and again, faced criticism for its App Store policies that have been deemed as ‘unfair' by crypto-related app makers. In November 2023, Apple customers filed a class-action lawsuit over the firm's restriction of crypto payments and not expanding its array of peer-to-peer payment services beyond the Apple Pay ecosystem.

Earlier that year, two Bitcoin wallet providers, Zeus and Damus, also criticised the iPhone-maker for restricting their apps on Apple's App Store, while a California appeals court previously told Apple that its policy of not allowing app developers to integrate third party payment methods with their services was ‘unlawful'.

Apple is yet to clarify whether crypto-related apps will be allowed to access the NFC functionality on the iPhone with the upcoming iOS 18.1 beta, which will allow access to the NFC and SE APIs to developers in Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the UK, and the US, while other regions will soon be added by the company.