Global Fintech firm Circle has revealed that its APIs now support ACH payments and payouts. Circle explains that ACH support allows clients to provide “seamless” bank transfers to and from USDC, which is a major stablecoin (or digital asset pegged to the US dollar).
Circle APIs provide major payment rails such as cards, wires, and blockchain-enabled transfers — “offering multiple ways for users to transfer money and transact with USDC, the world’s fastest-growing dollar stablecoin.”
The announcement stated:
“Circle is adding ACH as a payment rail, with comprehensive support available across both Payments and Payouts products. Customers can enable their users to make and receive payments using ACH, with seamless conversions into and out of USDC.”
Circle also noted that with the addition of ACH support in Circle APIs, clients may find a “happy medium” for handling digital transactions that “sits between card payments, which can be expensive for larger transactions, and wires, which don’t always make sense for small transactions (and can be more cumbersome when managing transactions at scale).”
Established digital asset exchange FTX has reportedly adopted Circle APIs and new ACH services in order to “support the launch of new retail crypto brokerage products.”
Sam Bankman-Fried, Founder and CEO of FTX, claims that Circle APIs give them “a fast, reliable and trusted infrastructure for connecting customer bank transfers to their new retail products, and with seamless settlement into USDC across Ethereum and Solana, this gives FTX the ability to offer the fastest possible experience for crypto investors.”
The announcement also mentioned that in order to make connecting bank accounts and accepting ACH payments “fast and easy,” Circle has teamed up with Plaid to enable faster account verification: your customers are able to directly link their banks (no account details get shared with Circle, or with its clients) and start transferring money.
This process aims to prevent common errors such as mistyping bank accounts or routing numbers and it also intends to ensure “greater user security, while reducing fraud reversal risks.” There’s no need to look around for numbers, “no clunky codes, no switching between applications during the process,” Circle claims. They also noted that “in short, Plaid makes it easy.”
ACH payments “automatically settle as USDC in your Circle Account, and payouts enable automatic conversion from USDC into ACH transfers,” Circle explained. The Fintech firm also mentioned that when combined with Circle Digital Dollar Account APIs, clients are able to create advanced treasury management and payments apps that may “tap into the openness, global reach, and cost-efficiency of dollar stablecoins.”
The company confirmed that all of this is currently available within the same “reliable” Circle APIs.
