Fitbit buys mobile payment technology from Coin

The ability to pay for things via NFC is nothing new, especially in the fitness tracker world. Most notably Jawbone’s latest flagship activity tracker, the UP4, allows for the use of NFC payments if you happen to have an American Express card. Now it looks like yet another major player is taking a big step towards bringing mobile payments to their wearables.

Fitbit has just announced that it’s acquiring wearable payment assets from Coin, the financial tech company famously known for the NFC-enabled all-in-one credit card.

Specifically, Fitbit has acquired key personnel and intellectual property specific to Coin’s wearables payment platform. In the press release, Fitbit was also very quick to point out that this deal excludes smart payment products like Coin 2.0.

Fitbit’s push into the mobile payment space shouldn’t come as a surprise. One of the company’s latest wearables, the Blaze, is the most smartwatch-y device they’ve ever produced. It would be a heck of a lot easier to complete a mobile payment with something like the Blaze rather than using a device without a display like the UP4.

Though the acquisition was officially completed on May 12th of this year, we shouldn’t expect to see any wearable payment options in any of Fitbit’s upcoming devices in 2016. As for 2017? Most likely, but Fitbit is remaining quiet for now.