Solana price drops to $115.23, Samsung introduces USDC to 82 million Galaxy phones: US launch only

Samsung integrates stablecoin transfers in the pre-installed wallets on Galaxy phones, and settles based on Solana network

Samsung is building a stablecoin transfer function in the pre-installed wallets on its Galaxy phones and settling through the Solana network. The feature is scheduled to go online in the last week of October and covers 82 million devices, all located in the United States. In early trading Thursday, SOL traded at $115.23, down 3.0% from the previous trading day. If you are using a Galaxy device located in Germany, this feature will not be available at this time. This is where the news headlines differ from the actual situation.

What was announced on October 8: USDC on Samsung Wallet and Solana

The Solana Foundation and Samsung Electronics announced on October 8 that Samsung Wallet and Samsung Pay will support stablecoin payments. The functions launched this time are mainly used for cross-border fund transfers. The stablecoin used is USDC, and back-end settlement is completed through the Solana network. Users do not need to open an exchange account or download a separate wallet application because the channel for fiat deposits and withdrawals is already built into it. The statement was released in the Solana Foundation's press room.

A stablecoin is a token whose value is anchored to a currency and backed by corresponding reserves. USDC is issued by Circle Corporation and is pegged to the U.S. dollar. For users, this means sending values denominated in US dollars rather than volatile cryptocurrencies, and the blockchain only functions as a transport layer.

Woncheol Chai, executive vice president and head of Samsung's digital wallet team, said in a statement that stablecoins are expected to make global capital flows faster and more convenient. Lily Liu, president of the Solana Foundation, added that stablecoins had previously lacked access to the mass market. These two paragraphs are official statements from the company involved, rather than independent evaluation reports.

82 million Galaxy devices are in the United States: How narrow is the actual scope of releases in the last week of October?

The seemingly broad coverage is actually clear. The foundation clearly pointed out that the only initial launch market is the United States, with the time window being the last week of October 2026. Other markets will be launched later, depending on local regulatory requirements. The statement did not mention a specific launch date in Europe or Germany.

Two data circulated in media reports did not appear in official statements, so they need to be viewed with caution. First of all, regarding the transfer covering 60 countries: the foundation did not make this claim. Secondly, regarding the issue of trusteeship. Several trade media reported that Coinbase holds USDC in Samsung Wallet through its institutional arm Coinbase Prime, pointing out that Samsung and Coinbase have previously cooperated. However, the official statement itself did not mention any custodian. When evaluating such news, the above two points should be regarded as media reports rather than confirmed facts.

The most commercially important issue remains unresolved: Samsung has not announced any fee structure. Without specific rates, it is impossible to determine whether this feature really reduces the cost of traditional international transfers, because transfer savings mainly come from exchange rate spreads and withdrawal fees in destination countries, rather than network fees in blockchain.

Trading remained calm: SOL prices followed the broader market on Thursday rather than driven by its own positive news.

SOL price at US$115.23: Announcement falls into the market's clearing mode stage

The announcement was made at a time when the market was in a weak stage. In early trading Thursday, SOL was down 3.0% in 24 hours and 3.5% in a week at US$115.23 (102.91 euros). The trading range for the day was US$114.42 to US$118.96, with volume of US$2.93 billion. During the same period, the price of Bitcoin was US$82,775, and the price of Ethereum was US$2,565.53. All data comes from CoinGecko's information as of early Thursday.

The trigger for market weakness did not come from the crypto industry. According to CoinDesk, mandatory liquidations surged 216% on October 7 to approximately $548 million, while Bitcoin fell below $84,000. It is attributed to the escalation of the situation in the Strait of Hormuz and the price of Brent crude oil exceeding US$101/barrel. Liquidation is the forced liquidation of a leveraged position when collateral no longer covers the position. Such fluctuations can ignore news on individual items and drive price changes.

The market's reaction to Samsung News confirms this: There was almost no reaction. SOL fluctuates in sync with Bitcoin and Ethereum. In days like this, if you judge a piece of news based solely on price movements, you are actually measuring the impact of oil prices. Differences in spreads between trading platforms can be found by looking at crypto exchanges comparisons, as there are significant differences in spreads and fees during the clearing stage.

US$5.25 trillion in stablecoin transaction volume: Samsung's changes to Solana's payment channel

The foundation provided two background data in the same statement: the volume of stablecoin issued on the Solana network has increased by nearly 20% year-on-year, and more than US$5.25 trillion in stablecoin transfers will be circulated on the network in 2026 alone. In this context, Samsung's cooperation does not enter a new business area, but adds a path to the already operating payment channel.

The structural difference lies in the user type. Currently, the volume of stablecoin transactions on Solana mainly comes from transactions between crypto addresses. Wallets pre-installed on mass-market phones can reach users who are reluctant to open exchange accounts or manage mnemonics. A mnemonic word is a sequence of words that restores access to a self-managed wallet. After removing this barrier, the usage scenario will shift from transactions to payments.

This has structural implications for the Solana network because payment traffic brings a more stable load than transaction spikes. But for price, the link is not as strong as the title suggests. If you want to use stablecoin to make payments in your daily life, check out the crypto credit card overview to learn about the ways currently available in Germany that do not require such wallet integration.

SOL is not a USDC: Payment token demand and token demand are two different things

This is the most common erroneous conclusion about this kind of news. Sending USDC through Samsung Wallet does not buy SOL. It just moves dollar tokens on a blockchain that charges fees in SOL. These fees are extremely low, at just a fraction of a penny per transaction. Therefore, even large transfers will only create a small demand for direct tokens.

The connection is more indirect and divided into three stages: more payment traffic means an increase in the balance of stablecoins held on Solana; more balance means an increase in the number of applications built on it; only in this case will a demand for block space arise. Unrealized situations can occur at any stage. No price target can be deduced from the news, and serious analysts currently do not.

The performance of the network side is verifiable. A query of the public Solana node shows that the current inflation rate for the 1052nd period is 3.61%. Of the total supply of 635,460,122 SOLs, 439,005,453 SOLs were locked as active pledges, accounting for 69.1%. Before deducting costs and taxes, the nominal pledge yield is approximately 5.2%. These numbers describe the underlying trend of growth in additional payment applications.

No date on the board: For Germany, the statement does not mention either the date or the approval path.

MiCA and e-currency tokens: Which USDC variant is authorized in Germany

This release is limited to the United States, and its core is regulation. The EU will implement the Cryptographic Asset Markets Regulation (MiCA) starting from 2024. Under this framework, stablecoins anchored to a single currency are regarded as electronic money tokens and can only be issued by authorized agencies. According to industry consensus reports, Circle was authorized in July 2024 through French regulator ACPR, making USDC one of the few stablecoins that fully comply with MiCA authorization requirements.

There are two often overlooked limitations here. First, licenses cover native USDC, rather than bridging variants that run on other chains with tags such as USDC.e. The bridge variant is a representative of the original token held by the bridge agreement and is not legally the same tool. Second, larger competitor USDT has not yet applied for the required authorizations, so multiple platforms have removed it from the European Economic Area.

Existing sources have reported on the entity exactly registered as the issuer, partly called Circle SAS and partly called Circle Mint Europe SAS. If you rely on this detail, please consult the entry in the European Securities Agency (ESMA) registry rather than relying on second-hand sources.

Holding periods, tax exemptions and Anlage SO form: German investors need to pay attention to tax issues of stablecoin payments

If the feature is later extended to Germany, something that many users underestimate will take effect. In terms of taxation, stablecoins are regarded as crypto assets rather than currencies. Therefore, every payment made using stablecoin is counted as a disposal within the meaning of Article 23 of the German Income Tax Law, just like exchanging Bitcoin for Ethereum. This applies even if the token value has not changed.

In practice, this means three things. The holding period is one year: If you hold crypto assets for more than twelve months, you will be tax-free for sale. The threshold is € 1,000 and applies to the total proceeds of all private disposals during a calendar year; once this threshold is reached, all proceeds are subject to tax, not just the excess. Taxable income needs to be entered in Form Anlage SO (Other Income Schedule) on the income tax return.

For U.S. dollar stablecoins, gains are almost entirely due to fluctuations in the U.S. dollar versus the euro exchange rate. Although the amount generated by a single payment is small, it will accumulate when it is used frequently and must be recorded. Starting from January 1, 2026, Germany's Cryptographic Asset Tax Transparency Act translates Europe's DAC8 reporting obligations into German law, so providers report transaction data to tax authorities. For the tax treatment of income from the network itself, please refer to our article on pledge taxation. A planned reform could eliminate the holding period requirement for positions acquired in 2027 and beyond; it is only in the draft stage and no one should plan accordingly.

Upper and lower resistance levels: US$114.42, US$118.96 and 69.1% pledge rate

In the next few days, there are three values that can be verified rather than speculated. Looking down, an intraday low of $114.42 marks the area where buyers intervene on Thursday. Looking upwards, the intraday high of $118.96 limits the range, while above it is the $120 level, where SOL reversed multiple times in early October. These numbers describe where transactions will occur and are not predictions.

The third value is more important because it changes slowly. Since 69.1% of the total supply is actively pledged, most positions cannot be sold immediately. The release of the pledge must wait until the end of the current period, which lasts approximately two days. This buffer mechanism suppresses selling pressure during rapid declines, and in turn delays the response to a positive one.

Faced with these three numbers, Samsung's news can be tested in the coming weeks. If prices have not left that range after the actual release in late October, then for prices, the news is qualitative on the day of release: an infrastructure story with no immediate price impact.

Samsung will release in late October: The feature is still turned off in Germany

The announcement is meaningful for the network, but does not currently affect the German portfolio. Despite this, the following three steps are recommended:

1. Note the dates and verify the actual release content: The last two weeks are the foundation's schedule, and the launch market is the United States. When Europe follows up depends on local authorization. Until then, if you want to use stablecoins in your daily life, you can check out the existing options in encrypted credit card comparisons.
2. Check the rates and spreads on your platform: During a clearing stage similar to October 7, the spreads will widen, at which time the platform determines your entry price. See Crypto Exchange Comparison for terms.
3. Keep a record of each stablecoin payment: Each payment is a taxable event and a threshold of 1,000 euros applies to the total of all private disposals. Which tools can automatically record this? See Crypto Tax Software Comparison for details.

(As of October 8, 2026. This article does not constitute investment advice. Price and fee structures are subject to change; please check terms with your provider before purchasing.)