Mastercard Embraces Stablecoin Transactions

Many were watching PayPal’s moves for a massive entry into the stablecoin payment sector, cryptocurrencies pegged to a currency (95% are tied to the dollar). Instead, it was Mastercard that took the plunge. The American credit card network will allow cryptocurrency payments. The operation, a note explains, will happen thanks to ‘strategic collaborations’ with cryptocurrency-specialized companies like MetaMask, Kraken, Gemini, Bybit, Crypto.com, Binance, Monavate, and Bleap. These will allow Mastercard to ‘enable consumers and businesses,’ the note adds, ‘to use stablecoins as easily as they use money deposited in their bank account.’ Just a few days ago, Bankitalia warned that in the euro area, the widespread adoption of payment tools and services based on stablecoins offered by American companies or banks could have implications for the regular functioning of payment systems and monetary sovereignty itself.