Are Cardano payments coming to Apple Pay?

Excitement around Cardano’s (ADA) apparent integration with Apple Pay has taken over social media this week, following viral posts suggesting that ADA payments are now live across Apple devices. However, according to Tokeo co-founder Shaz, the truth is slightly more nuanced.

In a post shared on July 22, Shaz addressed the viral headlines circulating around CardanoKit, a development toolkit that enables Cardano functionality on Apple devices. While the toolkit is indeed being worked on by Tokeo, he cautioned that:

“social media [is] taking things wayyyy out of proportion.”

The marketing buzz, he noted, has centered on the assumption that ADA payments are now fully supported via Apple Pay, which is not the case.

What is the situation with Cardano and Apple PaY’

What’s actually in progress is something broader and potentially more impactful. Shaz confirmed that Tokeo is just weeks away from launching a crypto-enabled Mastercard, developed in partnership with Mercuryo, a major payment gateway. The card will allow users to spend ADA using Apple Pay, bridging the gap between Web3 assets and traditional point-of-sale systems.

“They forgot to mention that very soon you’ll be able to use your Mastercard via Apple Pay to buy things using your ADA,” Shaz wrote. “That’s a whole other deliverable we’re working on.”

He also hinted at a growing pipeline of integrations, partnerships, and wallet infrastructure enhancements that Tokeo is currently building or exploring. These include collaborations with stablecoin providers, POS systems, identity solutions, wallet abstraction tools, and more. The ultimate goal, according to Shaz, is to build a product that targets users outside the core crypto space and makes Web3 payments accessible in the real world.

The attention around CardanoKit is a sign of the growing appetite for seamless crypto payments, especially across platforms like iOS. While ADA is not yet natively supported by Apple Pay, the infrastructure being developed by Tokeo could make that experience possible through indirect routes like card-linked payments.