Mastercard has officially introduced a broad crypto partner program aimed at connecting over 85 companies in the digital asset and payment sectors to develop blockchain-driven payment solutions.
The initiative intends to foster collaboration among crypto firms, financial institutions, and payment providers as digital assets increasingly influence cross-border transactions, payments, and other financial operations.
Participants in the program include major players such as Binance, Circle, Gemini, Paxos, Ripple, PayPal, Polygon, Solana, Crypto.com, MoonPay, Fireblocks, and the Canton Network. They will collaborate with Mastercard to create products that fuse blockchain technology with current payment frameworks. According to the announcement, the focus will be on applications like cross-border money transfers, settlements, and commercial transactions.
In a recent post on social platform X, Mastercard remarked that “digital assets are entering a new phase,” noting how technologies previously operating alongside traditional finance are now being utilized for practical purposes such as cross-border remittances and B2B payments.
Source
Source: Mastercard
It was also noted that this initiative builds upon Mastercard’s ongoing efforts in the digital asset space, which includes forging partnerships with crypto companies and supporting blockchain startups along with other crypto-linked payment solutions.
Visa and Mastercard Strengthen Their Commitment to Digital Assets
Mastercard’s launch of this partner program coincides with an increased focus on digital assets by major payment networks. In recent years, both Mastercard and Visa have rolled out initiatives to incorporate blockchain and stablecoin technology into their conventional payment systems.
In September, Visa announced a pilot scheme that enables banks to pre-fund cross-border payments using stablecoins via its Visa Direct platform, allowing for instantaneous payments.
Subsequent announcements indicated that Visa aims to broaden its crypto services to support four more stablecoins across various blockchains, adding to those it already supports on networks like Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), Stellar (XLM), and Avalanche (AVAX).
Meanwhile, Mastercard reported that around 30% of its transactions were tokenized in 2024 as it pursues its goals of integrating blockchain technology and digital assets into its payment operations.
Earlier this month, Mastercard partnered with SoFi Technologies to introduce settlements using SoFi’s dollar-backed stablecoin, SoFiUSD, within Mastercard’s payment network, allowing card issuers and acquirers to settle transactions in the stablecoin.
