Coinbase Global Inc. launched “Coinbase Payments,” a USDC-based payment stack designed for commerce platforms such as Shopify. The service allows payment service providers, marketplaces and infrastructure firms to enable instant, 24/7 global USDC transactions without exposing merchants or customers to blockchain complexity. Traders interpreted the move as a competitive threat to incumbent digital-payments firms. Shares of buy-now-pay-later and payments peers, including PayPal, Affirm and XYZ, fell sharply in intraday trading following the announcement.