Payment giant Stripe is rolling out a new feature that enables automatic recurring payments in USD Coin (USDC) via smart contracts, starting on the Base Chain (by Coinbase) and Polygon networks.
The upgrade allows merchants to save a customer’s crypto wallet and authorize future payments automatically, eliminating the need for manual transaction approvals each time.
Stripe reports that around 30% of its merchants run subscription‑based business models, such as streaming services or AI tools—making the USDC integration particularly relevant for recurring payment flows.
Alex (@obchakevich) said:
“We analyzed three chains and saw that in September, @stripe generated $17M in volume. The volume was divided between Polygon—$8M and Ethereum—$8M, while Base accounted for ~$960k.”
While this is a clear step toward greater crypto adoption in commerce, the move comes with caveats: regulatory uncertainty and security audits remain potential hurdles for broad implementation.
Base Chain and Polygon Selected for Stablecoin Adoption
Base Chain and Polygon were chosen for their lower transaction costs along with faster processing speeds. The setup allows merchants to configure USDC subscription payments directly through their Stripe dashboard, with the feature currently being made available in private preview.
“Now businesses accept recurring subscriptions on @USDC on Polygon and Base. This applies to ~20-30% of users with recurrent models.”
