Mastercard doubles down on Crypto, Blockchain efforts with new offer

Mastercard is looking to create the infrastructure needed to better certify blockchain transactions as regulation around the sector remains a work in progress, the company said on Friday.

Called the Mastercard Crypto Credential, the effort will define verification standards and offer technology needed for various use cases across the segment.

Central banks and financial institutions have sought to address security and compliance vulnerabilities as the scope of blockchain technology has evolved, Raj Dhamodharan, Mastercard’s head of crypto and blockchain, wrote in a blog on the company’s website.

“However, to fully implement these rules and build scalable use cases, we need a way for reliable, compatible and verifiable interactions to take place on public blockchain networks,” he added in the post.

The level of verification required for someone to receive an NFT, for example, differs greatly from the authentication required to transfer digital assets to and from crypto wallets, the company said.

The Mastercard Crypto Credential will provide simple aliases to help consumers more easily share wallet addresses, Mastercard added in the blog post, and use metadata to define wallet attributes to ensure only intended transactions are completed.

The new offering will also use CipherTrace – a crypto intelligence firm it acquired in 2021 – to help verify addresses and support compliance with cross-border transaction regulations.

Aptos Labs, Ava Labs, Polygon and Solana Foundation will help bring Mastercard’s new offering to application developers.

A spokesperson for Mastercard did not immediately return a request for further comment.

The news comes as Mastercard and rival Visa continued to sign new crypto card deals in early 2023 despite turbulence in crypto markets.

For example, Binance and Mastercard launched a card in Brazil in January, which allows the country’s users of the exchange to make purchases and pay bills with cryptocurrency.

Reuters reported in February that Mastercard and Visa would pause partnerships with crypto firms following various bankruptcies in the space, citing people familiar with the matter.

Visa dismissed the report, telling Blockworks at the time that it would continue to monitor crypto-related regulatory developments. The company launched a debit card with Gate Group, the firm behind crypto exchange Gate.io, about a week later.

Dhamodharan recently told Reuters that the company intends to expand its crypto card programs and is “quite enthusiastic” about blockchain technology more broadly.

Mastercard continues to support industry startups

Mastercard also added six fintech companies to its Start Path Digital Assets program on Friday. The initiative is designed to give startups access to the payment giant’s channels and customers, as well as to technical collaboration.

The program was founded in 2014, and more than 350 companies in 42 countries have so far participated.

New lineups include Axelar, Cheeze Inc., Coala Pay, Qonbay.io, RociFi Labs and Suberra.

Companies selected for the program “have a demonstrated product-market fit focused on digital assets, cryptocurrencies, value-added blockchain services and the metaverse,” according to Mastercard.
Axelar partnered with DeFi protocol Osmosis last year on a “one-click” bridge running on Ethereum.

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