Samsung Wallet to Add USDC Transfers for US Galaxy Users, With Solana and Sui as Network Partners

Samsung Wallet will let eligible Galaxy users in the United States hold and send USDC from the last week of October 2026, Samsung Electronics America said in a statement dated 7 October 2026. Samsung names Solana SOL$114.84-3.3% and Sui as the blockchain networks behind the feature, with custody handled by Bastion and Coinbase cbBTC$82,840.42-1.5%.

The Samsung Wallet USDC feature will be available across 82 million US Galaxy devices, a figure Samsung defines in a footnote as the number of Galaxy devices in the country that are compatible with Samsung Wallet. That is a count of phones that can run the feature. How many owners sign up and send money is something only the launch will show.

The Solana Foundation announced its side of the deal the same day in a press release headlined "Samsung Partners with Solana". The Sui Foundation published its own announcement saying Samsung Wallet "has selected Sui as its blockchain infrastructure partner". Neither foundation's announcement mentions the other network. Samsung's statement lists both.

What Samsung Wallet users will be able to do with USDC

Samsung describes two ways to send money. Eligible users can send USDC, a dollar-pegged stablecoin issued by Circle USDC$1.0000.0%, from Samsung Wallet to compatible crypto wallets, or send money to bank accounts in more than 60 countries, where the recipient receives local currency and needs no crypto wallet.

The two routes are priced differently. Samsung says it does not charge a fee for USDC transfers to external wallets, while recipient wallet providers or exchanges may charge their own, and transfer speed depends on blockchain network conditions. Bank transfers do carry fees, which Samsung says vary by destination country and amount and are shown in the app, with an estimated delivery time, before the sender confirms.

Eligibility is narrower than the device count. Samsung's footnotes limit the service to US residents aged 18 or older with a Samsung Account, on Galaxy devices compatible with Samsung Wallet running Android 13 or higher. Users must register, pass identity verification and set up biometric authentication.

Samsung has not given an exact launch day, a list of supported countries (it says the list will appear in the app) or the fee schedule for bank transfers.

Bastion keeps the ledger, Coinbase Prime holds the USDC

The Samsung Wallet stablecoin feature is custodial: users do not hold private keys, and a regulated third party holds the assets. Samsung states that it "is not a bank, money transmitter, or digital asset custodian and does not hold customer funds", and that accounts, custody and money movement are provided by regulated partners.

The main partner is Bastion, a stablecoin infrastructure company. In its own release, Bastion says it "keeps the ledger for each user's balance and executes USDC transfers on blockchain networks". Bastion also verifies each user's identity, screens blockchain addresses, monitors transactions for fraud, money laundering and sanctions exposure, and converts USDC and routes bank payouts through local regulated partners.

Transfers can only start from a registered device and must be approved with the user's biometric authentication, according to Bastion, which checks the device signature on each request.

Coinbase is Bastion's sub-custodian, meaning the USDC itself sits with Coinbase Prime Vault. Alec Lovett, Coinbase's head of infrastructure products, wrote in a Coinbase blog post that "Samsung's global reach makes this a significant distribution milestone for USDC."

Bastion says it holds a New York trust charter and state money transmitter licences, is registered with FinCEN as a money services business, and has conditional approval from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency for a national trust bank charter.

Bastion chief executive Nassim Eddequiouaq said of Galaxy users in the release: "Most of them will never think about custody, compliance, blockchains, or cross-border remittance rails, and that's exactly the point."

Solana and Sui are both named as networks, with no stated split

Solana and Sui are the networks the USDC moves over. Samsung's statement says "infrastructure and blockchain network support" will be provided by "separate partners with the required technical capabilities, including Solana and Sui", and Bastion's release says "Solana and Sui will provide blockchain network support".

None of the announcements says how transfers are split between the two networks, or whether the user, Samsung or Bastion picks the network for a given payment. Samsung's footnote defines compatible wallets as "third-party crypto wallets or exchange accounts that support USDC on a blockchain network supported by Samsung Wallet". That wording suggests the receiving address determines the network, though Samsung does not say so directly.

Each foundation makes its own case. The Solana Foundation says stablecoin supply on Solana is up nearly 20% year over year and that the network has processed more than $5.25 trillion in stablecoin volume in 2026, figures the release gives without a source or method. It also names PayPal PYUSD$1.0000.0% and Western Union as companies already using Solana for stablecoin activity. The Sui Foundation points to its gasless stablecoin transfers, under which a user can send USDC on Sui without paying a network fee, and says the SUI token is not supported in Samsung Wallet.

Samsung gave each partner a version of the same quote. Woncheol Chai, executive vice president and head of the Digital Wallet Team at Samsung's Mobile eXperience business, says in all three partner releases that Samsung wants Galaxy users to use stablecoins "without having to navigate the complexity of traditional crypto tools". The Solana version ends "Solana helps us bring that experience to Samsung's scale." The Sui version ends "Working with Sui helps us bring that experience directly into Samsung Wallet."

Solana Foundation president Lily Liu said in the foundation's release that "Samsung's decision to work with Solana puts digital dollars into everyday life through one of the world's most trusted technology brands."

Samsung Pay and tap-to-pay are described differently by each party

The Solana Foundation's release says "Samsung Wallet and Samsung Pay will support stablecoins on Solana". Samsung's own statement describes only the Samsung Wallet feature at launch. It mentions Samsung Pay as an existing payment option in the Coinbase app, part of an earlier Samsung and Coinbase tie-up.

On spending stablecoins in shops, Samsung is tentative. It says future capabilities "may include" paying with stablecoins online or by tapping an eligible Galaxy device in store, followed by possible expansion to other markets in line with each country's regulation. No dates are attached to either.

USDC on Solana already has a growing base of holders

Samsung Wallet adds a mainstream entry point to a stablecoin that is already widely held on Solana. The number of Solana wallets holding USDC rose from about 7.4 million on 11 July 2026 to about 9.6 million on 7 October 2026, an increase of roughly 29%, according to Solana Compass data. A wallet is an address, so the figure does not equal a count of people.

Samsung Wallet balances may not appear one-for-one in that series. Bastion keeps each user's balance on its own ledger and holds the USDC through Coinbase Prime, an arrangement in which many users can sit behind a small number of on-chain addresses. The activity most likely to be visible on Solana is USDC sent out to external wallets and exchange accounts.

The Samsung launch follows a run of stablecoin payment news on the network. A Solana Foundation report in September 2026 made the case for stablecoins in cross-border remittances, South Korea's Jeonbuk Bank completed a stablecoin remittance proof of concept on Solana, and Circle added Solana to its own USDC bridge in early October 2026.

What sets Samsung apart from those is distribution. The wallet app is already on the phone, the user never sees a seed phrase, and a recipient with a bank account never touches crypto at all. For Solana, the open question is share: Samsung has named two networks so far, and nothing published says how much of the traffic each will carry.