Mastercard has expanded its presence in the cryptocurrency realm with the introduction of Crypto Source, a program designed for financial institutions seeking to bring secure crypto trading capabilities and services to their customers.
According to the Purchase-headquartered Mastercard, the new program will provide its financial institution partners with a suite of buy, hold and sell services designed for select crypto assets. Mastercard”™s financial institution partners will also have access to crypto spend-and-cash-out capabilities through a range of products, including crypto cards, open banking and cross border services, and they will also be able to offer additional functionality using Mastercard”™s technology, including digital receipts and loyalty solutions.
To ensure the security of the new program, Mastercard”™s Crypto Source offering is complemented by the company”™s proprietary Crypto Secure technology that will support card issuers in their compliance with complex regulations while protecting transactions from outside interference.
Mastercard is also providing a crypto program management for banks, issuers and fintechs that includes program design, product development and technology implementation, along with go-to-market optimization and marketing consultancy services.
“At Mastercard, trust is our business,” said Ajay Bhalla, president of cyber and intelligence at Mastercard, who referred to the new program as “a connected approach to services that will help bring users safely and securely into the crypto ecosystem. Our recent investments in this space, such as the acquisition of CipherTrace and Ekata, are providing us with a unique set of capabilities to help provide our customers and consumers with the most technically advanced solutions available in the market.”
To support this program, Mastercard has expanded its partnership with Paxos Trust Co., a blockchain infrastructure platform. With the new program, Paxos will provide crypto-asset trading and custody services on behalf of the banks, while Mastercard will leverage its technology to integrate those capabilities into banks”™ interfaces.
“Our commitment is simple ”” to explore crypto and the underlying digital assets technology to support consumer choice in payments,” said Jorn Lambert, chief digital officer at Mastercard, who added the new program is “an exciting step in our crypto journey that draws on the strengths of our global businesses, from open banking and identity verification to analytics and fraud monitoring to settlement solutions.”
Mastercard Crypto Source is being prepared for pilot programs, with a more detailed announcement to be offered at a later date.
Crypto Source is the latest development from Mastercard focused on digital assets. In April, the company teamed with Nexo and DiPocket on the Nexo Card, a first-of-its-kind crypto-backed Mastercard card that was launched in several European markets. In January, the company teamed with Coinbase to allow consumers to use their Mastercards to make purchases on Coinbase”™s NFT marketplace. And last December, Mastercard welcomed five startups ”” Ava Labs, Envel, Kash, LVL and NiftyKey into its Mastercard Start Path Crypto engagement program that aims to solve challenges for people and businesses using blockchain technology.
