Mastercard Will Soon Accept Cryptocurrencies, Stablecoins & CBDs

Will this result in a new boost for cryptocurrencies?

As a welcoming move for cryptocurrencies, Mastercard has updated its cryptocurrency plans during the company's Thursday earnings call. CEO of the payments giant, Michael Miebach, explained that his company wants to get involved in three crypto areas. Additionally to Bitcoin, Mastercard also wants to focus on private stable coins and central bank digital currencies.

He affirmed, "We want to be playing a role across all of them. It's obviously a vibrant space around digital currencies..this is a relevant technology. As a multi-rail player, we got to be in this space because people are looking for answers." 

He also explained how the company is making it easier for cryptocurrency wallets to connect seamlessly to their network through a pilot called Paxos, Circle, and Evolve Bank & Trust, which will simplify the conversion of crypto into fiat currency. Mastercard is also partnering with Consensys, the Ethereum software engineering firm to accelerate the development of crypto applications and services to its customers. 

To bring stable coins into the picture, Mastercard is engaging with private sector players and regulators to formulate good policies due to the lack of regulatory compliance. The company is adamant to technologically enable its network to carry these stable coins as settlement currencies, once they meet all of the company's criteria that are regulatory compliance, consumer protection, and stability.

Riding the wave of speculations, Mastercard also believes that central governments are working on their own digital currencies that will be regulated by them. To not miss out on that opportunity, Mastercard will facilitate trading with these digital currencies so that all the countries can use the services with ease. Talking about the company's value proposition to central banks and government in the crypto space, the CEO noted, "we bring a unique perspective to the market..to these players as a multi-rail provider because all these countries have to the trade-off." He further added, "I think a particularly critical proposition here is our virtual test platform because all of these design choices that governments have to make and that we consult them on, we have to live in the wild, so to say. They've got to work with the existing financial infrastructure, and that's what our virtual test platform does for them."