Uber CEO mulls using stablecoins to cut cost of moving money

Ridesharing giant Uber is in the “study phase” of using stablecoins to help reduce the costs of moving money around the world, says its CEO Dara Khosrowshahi.

Khosrowshahi said on stage at the Bloomberg Tech Summit in San Francisco on June 5 that Uber is “definitely going to take a look” at stablecoins.

“We’re still in the study phase, I’d say, but stablecoin is one of the, for me, more interesting instantiations of crypto that has a practical benefit other than crypto as a store of value,” he said.

“Obviously, you can have your opinions on Bitcoin, but it’s a proven commodity, and you know, people have different opinions on where it’s going,” he added.

Stablecoins are a type of cryptocurrency aiming to mirror the value of traditional currencies, most commonly the US dollar. They’re typically backed by reserves of cash and short-term government bonds.

Khosrowshahi said that stablecoins are “super interesting to us,” primarily as a payment vehicle for transporting money.

“I do think that stablecoin is quite promising, especially for global companies that are moving money around globally to create a mechanism for us to essentially reduce costs in terms of moving money internationally,” he said.

Stablecoin interest on the rise

Other companies and even banks have been increasingly interested in using stablecoins in some form for business.

In May, co-founder and president of payment giant Stripe John Collison said in an interview with Bloomberg that his company had been in early discussions with banks about potentially integrating stablecoins.