Blockchain for Banking News

Mastercard aims to power stablecoins from wallets to merchant acceptance

mastercard

Today Mastercard announced a ‘360-degree’ approach to stablecoins. It is positioning itself to service stablecoins much in the same way it does with card payments, to enable services for consumers, merchants and banks.

There’s much lobbying for position in the stablecoin sector, with 2025 predicted as the year that stablecoins move beyond crypto use cases. The race is on to see who can build the largest network of partners.

During the past week, Stripe announced it’s testing its new stablecoin solution based on the Bridge API for business payments. Citi forecast that stablecoins could reach a circulation of $1.6 trillion to $3.7 trillion by 2030. And Circle unveiled plans to launch the Circle Payments Network which aims to coordinate on and off-ramps, including collaborating with Deutsche Bank, Santander, Societe Generale and Standard Chartered.

Plus, in today’s announcement, Mastercard mentioned the potential for stablecoins to become ‘ubiquitous’. Last month startup Ubyx announced plans for a network for banks and fintechs to on and off-ramp an array of stablecoins, including smaller ones.

Mastercard’s range of stablecoin services

Turning to Mastercard’s announcement, it has already provided several of these stablecoin services for quite a while. It’s looking to expand its network of partners.

For consumers it makes stablecoins more user friendly by enabling crypto users to pay with stablecoins using Mastercard branded cards. Many crypto exchanges already provide cards, with OKX the latest to announce one.

On the merchant front, it is partnering with Nuvei and stablecoin issuers Circle and Paxos to enable support for merchants to accept stablecoins, whether or not the payment uses a card. The mention of Paxos is notable given a recent report by Coindesk that Visa plans to become a partner of the Paxos Global Dollar, although Visa hasn’t yet officially confirmed it. Paxos is also the issuer of PayPal’s PYUSD.

For crypto institutions, it provides the Mastercard crypto credential to support compliant remittances combined with user-friendly names.

Plus, Mastercard has the Mastercard Multi-Token Network (MTN), which aims to support an array of digital assets, not just stablecoins. MTN includes links to banks such as JP Morgan and Standard Chartered. So far it allows investors in assets such as Ondo Finance’s tokenized money market funds to on and off-ramp, but stablecoins are part of the plans.

“To realize its potential, we need to make it as easy for merchants to receive stablecoin payments and for consumers to use them,” said Jorn Lambert, chief product officer at Mastercard. “We believe in the potential of stablecoins to streamline payments and commerce across the value chain. Unlocking this is core to how we navigate the rapidly changing world, giving people and businesses the freedom they want by providing the choices they deserve.”