Mastercard to enable stablecoin card transactions with Moonpay partnership
Holders of Mastercard-issued cards will be able to conduct transactions directly with their stablecoin balances
Mastercard has partnered with cryptocurrency payment infrastructure company Moonpay to enable users to make transactions using stablecoins.
The integration will allow Mastercard credit and debit cardholders to settle payments with select digital assets, further expanding the company’s involvement in blockchain-based financial services.
The details
- Announcing the development in a press release, Mastercard said fintechs that incorporate the firm’s infrastructure will be able to provide Mastercard-issued cards linked to the user’s stablecoin wallet.
- Iron, a stablecoin infrastructure provider recently acquired by Moonpay, is crucial to this partnership, the firm added.
- Mastercard will integrate Iron’s application program interfaces (APIs) which are designed to bridge stablecoins into existing payment rails.
- In addition, Iron’s APIs will let Mastercard gain access to the millions of stablecoin wallets across multiple exchanges that use Moonpay’s infrastructure.
- The firm expects the feature to be live in all outlets globally that accept its credit and debit cards.
Key quotes
- Mastercard’s executive vice president on global partnerships Scott Abrahams, said:
“By providing solutions that unlock stablecoin utility and ubiquity, we are redefining how money moves globally and driving a shift in payments as we know it. Together with MoonPay, we’re building innovative and secure connectivity between crypto and mainstream finance ecosystems, grounded by trust and driven by scale.”
- Ivan Soto-Wright, MoonPay’s CEO and Founder, said:
“MoonPay serves the largest crypto wallets in the industry, and with Mastercard, we’re bringing convenient, trusted stablecoin-enabled cards to crypto users around the world. Our acquisition of Iron and long-standing relationship with Mastercard allow us to power a new era of payments made with stablecoins at more than 150 million merchant locations worldwide.”
Why this matters
- Traditional financial institutions globally are starting to, more brazenly, turn to stablecoins to improve their offerings.
- In addition, fiat-pegged stablecoins such as USDC and USDT have grown in adoption over the last few years, in some cases more than established cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin.
- For users in underdeveloped and developing countries such as most African nations, stablecoins offer easy access to otherwise scarce foreign exchange.
- These traditional financial institutions are now having to pivot more and more towards stablecoins as the demand for them increases.
- John Egan, payments company Stripe’s head of crypto, confirmed this at the firm’s yearly conference. He said:
“Within a week of turning on stablecoins last year, we saw transactions pour in from over 30 countries, and we processed more stablecoin transactions in that week than we did in an entire year and a half with bitcoin back in 2015.”
Zoom out
- Last week, Mariblock reported that crypto firm and stablecoin issuer Circle partnered with several global financial institutions, many of whom are fiat-based.
- This partnership was designed to allow for the seamless movement of funds across borders using stablecoins while recipients get paid in their preferred fiat currency.
