Coinbase Wallet Launching Tap-to-Pay Soon – What It Means for Global Payments

Coinbase Wallet Set to Challenge Fast Payments with Global Tap-to-Pay Feature

Coinbase Wallet is positioning itself as a new player in the quick-payment space with a soon-to-launch “tap-to-pay” feature, aiming to compete directly with services like Cash App, Venmo, and PayPal.

This development, revealed by Coinbase Wallet lead and Base founder Jesse Pollak through an interview with Cointelegragh during the DevCon conference in Bangkok, is already in “internal alpha,” with a public rollout expected imminently.

Pollak believes the feature could be transformative for smaller merchants who currently rely on existing payment solutions.

He described Coinbase’s approach as offering a “better, faster, more global tap-to-pay experience,” which he envisions functioning seamlessly worldwide.

Coinbase's Wallet lead and Base founder Jesse Pollak at the DevCon conference in Bangkok on 13 November.

The goal, Pollak suggested, is for Coinbase Wallet to be available in 50 countries by the close of 2025.

“I think it’s pretty huge,” Pollak remarked, reinforcing his confidence in the feature’s potential.

Pushing Toward Onchain Transactions for Better Economic Outcomes

Coinbase Wallet aims to encourage more users to shift their finances onchain, including spending, saving, and investing.

Pollak detailed how the integration of traditional bank accounts with the crypto wallet could drive a change in user habits.

He shares about the advantages of blockchain-based transactions:

““We want people to be moving their saving, their spending, their investing onchain, because it’s going to give better rates, better interest, better economic outcomes, better outcomes for merchants because it’s a faster, better, cheaper, more global economy that works for everyone.””

By reducing transaction costs, this system could open doors for merchants to thrive in a faster, global economy, which Pollak believes will provide “better outcomes” across the board.

The plan involves incorporating bank account off-ramps, allowing users to receive payments in stablecoins such as USD Coin (USDC) or Tether (USDT), which can then be easily converted into local currency.

Although stablecoin economies remain relatively small, Pollak is optimistic that merchant adoption will grow rapidly as the benefits of lower-cost payments become more evident.

Aiming to Solve Ethereum Layer 2 Interoperability Issues

Alongside Coinbase Wallet’s tap-to-pay feature, Base, the Ethereum layer 2 network developed by Coinbase, is nearing a solution to the long-standing interoperability issues affecting Ethereum’s secondary networks.

Pollak noted that Base has made significant progress towards this goal and expects the solution to arrive within “the next six months.”

The fragmented nature of current layer 2 solutions on Ethereum makes it difficult for users to transfer assets across chains, limiting overall flexibility.

Existing crosschain solutions have addressed some of these limitations, but Pollak explained that two new standards—ERC-7683 and RIP-7755—could offer a robust framework for interoperability.

ERC-7683 introduces a standard for crosschain transfers, while RIP-7755 facilitates trustless execution across chains.

Pollak stated,

“They work together to basically so you can have a wallet that can execute across every L2… your wallet to let you work everywhere.”

Unlocking New Potential for Ethereum’s Layer 2 Ecosystem

If successful, this solution could allow asset transfers between Base and other Ethereum layer 2 networks such as Arbitrum One, OP Mainnet, and Blast, enhancing use cases across an ecosystem currently holding over $42 billion in value, according to data from L2BEAT.

Pollak anticipates that once the standard is implemented, Base will also expand beyond Ethereum’s layer 2 to other blockchain networks, providing a comprehensive platform where users can store assets on Base and transact seamlessly across multiple ecosystems.