One of the financial industry’s leading payments companies, Mastercard, announced on April 28 that it will expand its crypto payment card program. To do so, the company seeks to partner with new crypto firms, despite the recent regulatory and banking scrutiny.
The payments giant has already entered into partnerships with multiple high-profile cryptocurrency exchanges. Some examples include Binance, Gemini, and Nexo. The partnerships allowed Mastercard and the exchanges to offer crypto-linked payment cards in a number of countries.
Mastercard’s head of crypto and blockchain, Raj Dhamodharan, said:
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“We have dozens of partners around the world who offer crypto card programs, and they continue to expand. Providing access to crypto safely is also part of our value proposition, and we’re continuing to do that.”
Mastercard’s solution to solving trust problems in crypto
Overall, this is an important development, as the banks have become quite wary of crypto clients. In 2022, multiple major crypto firms collapsed, the biggest of which was the crypto exchange FTX.
Simultaneously, US regulators are actively cracking down on different crypto companies. Some of the biggest cases involved the US CFTC suing Binance in March, calling it an “illegal” exchange and its compliance program a “sham.”
Meanwhile, banks like NatWest and Santander have limited the amount UK customers can transfer to crypto exchanges. Many did not like this, feeling like the banks were deciding how they were allowed to spend their money.
It would appear that there is a great lack of common standards and trust in the financial industry, which also results in the lack of proper protection. In the end, this has created vulnerabilities in security and compliance, which could be very damaging for the crypto industry.
This is why the card issuer has decided to launch Mastercard Crypto Credential, which will establish common standards and an infrastructure to help attest trusted interactions between blockchain-using businesses and consumers.
According to the company’s announcement, Mastercard Crypto Credential can unlock several use cases. The firm noted that consumer and business verification tends to vary widely based on compliance requirements, market, and other aspects.
Mastercard Crypto Credential will help ensure that entities interested in interacting across Web3 environments meet defined standards for the activity they wish to pursue.
Dhamodharan said recently that Mastercard is “really quite enthusiastic” about blockchain technology and that the company expects more and more regulated money to come to it.
A Mastercard-powered crypto card for Europe and the UK
Meanwhile, Mastercard is continuing to expand its crypto card coverage, recently launching it in the UK and EU. The card was launched by Bybit, the third-most visited crypto exchange in the world. It was issued by Moorwand and powered by Mastercard, allowing users to easily transition from crypto to the fiat world, make purchases, withdraw cash from ATMs, and more.
With this card, consumers can avoid dealing with middlemen and off-ramp providers to pay for goods and services with their crypto holdings. The idea was to start with a core group of cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, XRP, Tether, and USD Coin. In time, this list will be expanded.
