Mastercard has launched a global crypto partner program that will initially bring together more than 85 companies across the digital asset and payment industries to collaborate on blockchain-based payment and settlement systems.
The initiative is designed to connect crypto companies, financial institutions and payment providers as digital assets play an increasingly important role in cross-border transfers, payments and other financial services.
Participants include crypto exchanges, blockchain networks and infrastructure providers, including Binance, Circle, Gemini, Paxos, Ripple, PayPal, Polygon, Solana, Crypto.com, MoonPay, Fireblocks and the Canton Network.
They will work with Mastercard on products that integrate blockchain systems with existing payment infrastructure. According to the announcement, the app will focus on use cases such as cross-border money transfers, settlements and business payments.
In a message on Wednesday, Mastercard said “digital assets are entering a new phase” and technologies that once worked alongside traditional finance are increasingly being used for practical uses such as cross-border money transfers and business-to-business payments.
Mastercard said the initiative builds on its existing work in digital assets, including partnerships with crypto companies, support programs for blockchain startups and crypto-related payment cards.
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Visa and Mastercard deepen digital assets
Mastercard’s new partner program comes as major payment networks deepen digital assets. Both Mastercard and Visa have launched initiatives in recent years aimed at integrating blockchain technology and stablecoins with traditional payment infrastructure.
In September, Visa announced a pilot that would allow banks to pre-fund cross-border payments with stablecoins through its Visa Direct platform, enabling near-instant payments.
About a month later, the company said it would expand its crypto services to support four additional stablecoins on four blockchains, in addition to the stablecoins already supported on the network, including Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), Stellar (XLM), and Avalanche (AVAX).
Rival Mastercard said around 30% of its transactions would be tokenized in 2024 as it continued efforts to integrate blockchain technology and digital assets into its payment infrastructure.
Earlier this month, Mastercard and SoFi Technologies teamed up to enable payments using SoFi’s dollar stablecoin, SoFiUSD, on Mastercard’s payments network.
The agreement allows issuers and acquirers to settle card transactions in digital dollars issued by the bank, and SoFi Bank plans to complete its Mastercard credit and debit transactions in the stablecoin.
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