Google’s parent company Alphabet (GOOGL) is moving into digital money through a new partnership with cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase Global (COIN).
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Specifically, Alphabet is rolling out a new open-source protocol that lets artificial intelligence (AI) applications send and receive digital payments, notably stablecoins that are cryptocurrencies whose value is pegged to the U.S. dollar or price of gold.
To incorporate stablecoin rails, Alphabet has partnered with U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase, which has been developing its own AI-integrated payments infrastructure. The partnership builds on Alphabet’s earlier work to establish a standard for “AI agents” that are expected to eventually handle complex tasks such as home mortgages or shopping for clothes without any human input.
Secure Payments
Alphabet says it wants to help facilitate financial transactions and aims to ensure payments are secure, interoperable, and executed with the human user in mind. The technology giant is the latest company to enter the stablecoin market.
Currently, there are about $289 billion worth of stablecoins in circulation around the world, an increase from $205 billion at the start of the year. Stablecoins are expected to play an outsized role in decentralized finance (DeFi) and cryptocurrency transactions moving forward.
Is GOOGL Stock a Buy?
The stock of Alphabet has a consensus Strong Buy rating among 37 Wall Street analysts. That rating is based on 28 Buy and nine Hold recommendations issued in the last three months. The average GOOGL price target of $235.97 implies 5.97% downside from current levels.
