Top Crypto Takeaways From Apple’s iPhone 18 Pro, Pro Max and Duo Launch

This was the first product launch event led by new CEO John Ternus, who introduced the iPhone 18 Pro, Pro Max, and Apple’s first foldable smartphone, the Duo. The company also presented new Apple Watches and Airpods 5.

After the event, the bitcoin and crypto community mostly joked about the price of the new devices measured in BTC and how one half of the Duo’s screen could be used for trading and the other for explaining crypto to family. However, several other things deserve closer attention. Let’s start with what wasn’t said.

Nothing on Payments, Again, but Food for Speculation Exists

After Apple announced new Wallet and Apple Cash features at WWDC in June 2026, neither Ternus nor other executives delivered any other payment-related news on Wednesday, as is now usual for September hardware launch events.

Payments are probably the most-watched Apple-related item within the crypto asset industry. It could indicate whether the company, with more than a billion active iPhones, is moving toward natively supporting crypto asset payments and adding them to its wallet. Based on worldwide trends, stablecoins are now the most likely to be supported by Apple.

For now, the new services released in June indicate that the company is actively building out its payments capabilities. It expanded Apple Cash into bill-splitting, opened Wallet to user-created passes, redesigned Apple Pay checkout, and added Tap to Share.

Meanwhile, Apple Cash runs through Green Dot Bank, with Apple Payments Services LLC acting as a service provider. Given how these services are structured, stablecoins might be the company’s first choice should it, for example, look to expand Split Bill with Apple Cash outside the U.S. Moreover, Apple’s structure resembles what will be required of a licensed stablecoin issuer in the U.S., starting in 2027 — a nonbank layer on top of a chartered bank.

In either case, as reported by Bitcoin.com News, Apple’s crypto asset strategy could depend as much on other executives and market trends as on Ternus.

Bitcoin Can Improve Apple’s Photo-Authenticity System

The company launched a new optional feature for iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max users, Apple Reference Image. It allows users to prove that a picture they took hasn’t been altered.

However, the feature works by showing the reference image in the Photos app next to the ordinary photo, and the user needs to compare the two pictures visually. Therefore, you’d need to trust Apple that everything is accurate here.

Meanwhile, public blockchains can take this verification a step further, as they can provide cryptographic proof of the original timestamped picture. Of course, this doesn’t prove that the timestamped file hasn’t been altered in the first place, and only allows users to confirm what was timestamped.

For example, Bitcoin developer Peter Todd created distributed timestamping on Bitcoin, Opentimestamps. It allows users to timestamp different files, including photos, on the Bitcoin blockchain, proving that the file existed at or before a given Bitcoin block.

“Governments are definitely going to get special abilities to fake photos through mechanisms like this. Because they can get secret access to Apple’s signing keys,” Todd reacted on X.

Therefore, should Apple want to improve its Apple Reference Image service, public blockchains might become a possible way to do so.

Different Approaches to Charging for AI

Apple reiterated that some Apple Intelligence features, such as Siri AI, intelligent photo-editing tools, and Image Playground, are capped by daily usage limits.

“Expanded access to such features will be available for a fee in the future,” the company said, without specifying what the fee might be or how it would be charged.

For now, the company has pointed to subscription tiers as a possible mechanism, similar to what is already being used by AI giants such as Anthropic and OpenAI.

This would be different from what bitcoin-focused L402 and crypto/stablecoin-focused x402 protocols can offer for the agentic economy — charging micropayments per request.

In the crypto asset industry, this is considered likely to become the default for AI, as traditional payment rails can’t handle micropayments the way bitcoin and stablecoins can. Possibly, this could be another expansion avenue for Apple and its AI services.

Crypto Asset-Stealing SIM Swaps Might Become More Difficult on iPhone

Apple is removing physical SIM cards from its new devices, claiming that this offers better security, among other things. The iPhone Duo is eSIM-only worldwide, while the iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max ship in eSIM-only versions in multiple markets, including the U.S.

SIM swaps have already been tied to multiple crypto asset thefts, as criminals trick telcos into moving a victim’s number to a device the attacker controls, gaining access to SMS codes to reset passwords on email and crypto exchange accounts.

However, security experts debate whether an eSIM is really safer than a physical SIM.

“An eSIM is physically more secure, but it does not inherently protect you from a remote SIM swap attack. The vulnerability lies with the carrier’s human and procedural authentication process, not the form factor of the SIM,” cybersecurity firm Deepstrike concluded recently.

Separately, with iOS 27, Apple will introduce iPhone Handoff in the U.S. and Germany, allowing the same phone number to be used across two iPhones, which, in theory, might also introduce attack vectors.

Also, with the iPhone Duo, the company reintroduced Touch ID in the side button and removed Face ID, a change that has both security benefits and downsides.

Mission Possible

To conclude, while Apple hasn’t mentioned anything about bitcoin, crypto assets, or blockchain technology, its latest developments show that some of the problems these assets and chains are trying to solve are problems the tech giant is addressing in its own way.

However, all these technologies could help the multitrillion-dollar tech giant improve its products and services further. It remains to be seen whether Apple will choose to accept that mission, although it now seems increasingly possible.