Stablecoins could slash fees
Immutable’s co‑founder Robbie Ferguson argued that using stablecoin payments outside app stores could collapse the traditional 30% fee to roughly 1%, a shift developers are debating publicly (x.com).
A stablecoin is a crypto token designed to track a real currency like the United States dollar, and developers now say that using it outside app stores could cut payment costs from roughly 30% to about 1%. (developer.apple.com) (help.coinbase.com) The argument surfaced this week after Immutable co-founder Robbie Ferguson said developers could route purchases through stablecoin checkout instead of Apple or Google billing. Apple’s standard App Store commission is 30%, and its Small Business Program lowers that to 15% for developers with up to $1 million in annual proceeds. (developer.apple.com) On Google Play, the numbers are already shifting. Google said on March 4, 2026 that developers will be able to use their own billing systems in-app or send users to external web checkouts, while Play’s new service-fee structure starts at 20% for many new-install transactions before any separate billing fee. (android-developers.googleblog.com) (support.google.com) Apple’s rules changed in the United States on May 1, 2025, when it updated App Review Guidelines to comply with a court order covering buttons, external links, and other calls to action. That let United States storefront apps point users to outside payment pages for digital purchases. (developer.apple.com) That change grew out of Epic Games’ long fight with Apple over in-app payments. TechCrunch reported on April 6, 2026 that Apple had charged a 27% commission on external purchases after the original injunction, and that the Ninth Circuit upheld a contempt finding against Apple in December 2025 before the company moved toward another Supreme Court appeal. (techcrunch.com) The missing piece in Ferguson’s math is the outside processor. Coinbase Commerce says it charges a 1% fee on crypto payments, while Stripe’s standard domestic card price is 2.9% plus 30 cents and its stablecoin product settles customer payments in United States dollars after users pay with tokens such as USD Coin. (help.coinbase.com) (stripe.com) (docs.stripe.com) Developers still have to solve for compliance, fraud, refunds, taxes, and the fact that most phone users do not already keep stablecoins in a wallet. Apple says external-purchase tools are available only for qualifying apps and optional entitlements, and Google says its lower-fee rollout is staggered by region. (developer.apple.com) (support.google.com) So the debate is less about whether a blockchain payment can clear cheaply than about who owns checkout on mobile. After years of 30% app-store economics, even a path to something closer to 1% is enough to pull game and app developers into the fight. (developer.apple.com) (help.coinbase.com)
