Mastercard enhances payment card offering for Cryptocurrency companies

By Joy Dumasia

Mastercard announced it would enhance its card program for cryptocurrency wallets and exchanges, making it more straightforward for partners to convert cryptocurrency to traditional fiat currency. Working with Evolve Bank & Trust and Paxos Trust Company, the blockchain infrastructure and regulated stablecoin issuance platform, and Circle, a global financial technology firm and the principal operator of the USD Coin (USDC), a digital dollar currency or stablecoin,

Mastercard and its partners will test this new capability to enable more banks and crypto companies to offer a card option to people wanting to spend their digital assets anywhere Mastercard is accepted.

Crypto providers planning to launch or expand card programs could find it operationally challenging to perform the currency conversion, a critical step preceding the settlement on Mastercard’s network. Mastercard’s engagement with Evolve, Paxos and Circle solves this challenge for players across the industry.

The enhancement to Mastercard’s existing Crypto Card Program includes a suite of partners. Mastercard is in discussions with Evolve Bank & Trust and Metropolitan Commercial Bank to issue cards, Uphold and BitPay to provide real-time crypto wallet technology, i2c Inc., Apto Payments and Galileo Financial Technologies, to support processing and program management.

Raj Dhamodharan, executive vice president of digital asset and blockchain products & partnerships at Mastercard, commented: “Today, not all crypto companies have the foundational infrastructure to convert cryptocurrency to traditional fiat currency, and we’re making it easier. Through our engagement with Evolve, Paxos, Circle and the larger digital assets community, Mastercard expects to deliver on our promise of consumer choice to provide options to people around the world on how and when to pay.”

IBS Intelligence recently reported that Mastercard had launched its next-generation real-time payments gateway service PayPort+, which provides flexible access to the UK’s real-time payments infrastructure for Financial Institutions and Payment Service Providers.