Samsung to Bring Native Stablecoin Features to 800 Million Galaxy Smartphones
Samsung has announced plans to add native stablecoin features — including fiat-pegged savings and payments accounts — to 800 million new Galaxy smartphones via Samsung Wallet, a move that analysts say could position the company as the world's largest distributor of tokens like USDC.
The announcement came during Samsung's Galaxy Unpacked 2026 event, where the company outlined its vision for integrating digital value transfer into its existing hardware ecosystem across 61 countries.
Distribution as the Scarce Asset
"Distribution is the scarce asset here, and Samsung owns a great deal of it," said Joseph Goh, director and head of Asia Pacific at crypto investment banking firm Areta. Goh told CoinDesk that the move would make Samsung "a dominant distributor of stablecoins such as USDC."
Samsung Wallet already has nearly 19 million users in South Korea alone. Lee Dinham, smartphone specialist product manager at Samsung, said the wallet would become "the foundation for an interconnected financial ecosystem across Galaxy devices and services — where it combines payments, rewards, and digital assets into a single unified experience."
Over one billion Samsung smartphones are currently active worldwide, giving the company a distribution channel that far exceeds any crypto-native platform.
Building Infrastructure, Not Just Distribution
Samsung's strategy extends beyond the wallet. Three Samsung affiliates — Samsung Securities, Samsung SDS, and Samsung Card — agreed in May to acquire a 4% stake in Dunamu, the operator of South Korea's largest cryptocurrency exchange Upbit, for $408 million.
During Samsung SDS's Q2 earnings call, CEO Lee Jun-hee described the Dunamu investment as strategic, aimed at entering the digital asset infrastructure business including stablecoins and AI-powered payments.
"The wallet announcement secured distribution; SDS and Dunamu will secure the infrastructure beneath it," said Goh. He believes Samsung is positioning itself to support both dollar- and won-denominated stablecoins while South Korea's regulatory framework is still taking shape.
South Korean Regulatory Context
South Korea unveiled a draft of the Digital Asset Basic Act in April, which would establish rules for digital asset trading, custody, supervision, and stablecoin issuance. However, no implementation deadline has been set.
Ben Nadareski, CEO and co-founder of Solstice, framed the development as distribution finally catching up to liquidity: "For years, crypto had deep venues in places like South Korea and weak paths into daily spend. Samsung Wallet points the other way: stablecoins inside a hub people open for cards and checkout."
Samsung has been involved in cryptocurrency since introducing its Knox digital asset wallet in 2019, supporting bitcoin, ether, and tron alongside hardware wallet integration with Ledger devices.