Eco acquires stablecoin shopping app Join

With $95 million in funding, Eco plans to deliver on crypto’s promises of mass adoption and reliable decentralized payments inclusive of existing mainstream platforms. 

Eco, the builders behind Ethereum layer-2 wallet Beam, announced its acquisition of the stablecoin-based shopping app Join to bridge the gap between major merchants like Amazon, Shopify, and crypto users. 

Beam Wallet from Eco is a self-custody wallet allowing users to make payments on Ethereum L2 networks like Coinbase’s Base and Optimism, with features like account abstraction that unlock advanced security and recovery pathways. The Eco protocol boasts some of the biggest crypto backers, such as Andreessen Horowitz, Lightspeed, Pantera Capital, and Venture Partners.

Integrating Join will enable customers to spend stablecoins like Tether’s USDT in supported online stores and allow the option to transfer money to recipients around the world instantly.

In a statement seen by crypto.news, Join co-founder and CEO Tom Dean said the takeover signals the next generation of seamless, user-friendly crypto payment experiences on a global scale.

Beam CEO Andy Bromberg added that the move aligns with an underlying philosophy to surpass limits inherent in traditional finance.

We’re bringing together two mission-driven teams working to increase crypto’s viability for everyday transactions. Combining Join’s seamless merchant integration with Beam’s peer-to-peer payments focus advances our goal of making Beam the best payment product on the market.

Andy Bromberg, CEO of Beam

A combined market capitalization of nearly $140 billion makes stablecoins a crucial sector of the nascent cryptocurrency industry. Not only are these tokens pegged to fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar, outfitting digital assets users with a low-volatility currency, but stablecoins also serve as gateways in and out of crypto.  

Stablecoins have proliferated multiple leading blockchains like Ethereum, Solana, and Bitcoin might be next. A report from CoinShares stated that an emerging Bitcoin-based stablecoin slated for this year could usurp titans like Tether in terms of transaction speed and cost efficiency.