Financial giant Mastercard is taking another step, and not the least, into the crypto ecosystem. Mastercard plans to allow banks to integrate digital assets into their business. To that end, the U.S. financial giant has launched Crypto Source, a program that allows financial institutions to offer secure crypto-related services to their customers. In this initiative, Mastercard has partnered with Paxos, a Blockchain infrastructure company. This program, and other similar initiatives before it, reveals how cryptocurrency is becoming more and more essential as a payment method.
Crypto soon in banks
Financial giant Mastercard is pursuing initiatives to make cryptocurrency more accessible and commonplace. After launching a crypto card in several parts of the world, Mastercard now wants to enable banks to conduct cryptocurrency-related activities.
The American company has thus partnered with Paxos, a platform in the blockchain ecosystem to launch Crypto Source. This ambitious program aims to enable Mastercard’s partner banks to access services for buying, holding and selling certain cryptocurrencies.
We are proud to work with Mastercard, to simplify access to cryptocurrencies for banks. In a new partnership, Mastercard will leverage Paxos to enable financial institutions to seamlessly buy, sell and hold cryptocurrencies on behalf of customers.
A partnership that will boost the adoption of crypto
This partnership between Mastercard and Paxos is cause for optimism for those who aspire to mass adoption of cryptocurrency. Indeed, Mastercard is the world’s second largest bank card payment network. As such, this financial giant has a powerful network of financial institutions in over 210 countries and territories. Paxos for its part is a legal platform for blockchain infrastructure that facilitates access to assets for businesses. Its customers are leading global companies such as Bank Of America, Société Générale, Binance, etc.
In fact, the heads of both companies are enthusiastic about the partnership. Walter Hessert, head of strategy at Paxos firmly believes that the association with a player like Mastercard, with a large network of financial institutions around the world, can only boost the adoption of digital assets.
Mastercard has a powerful network of financial institutions around the world. This exciting offering developed by Paxos and Mastercard will provide Fintechs with the fastest and most reliable way to offer crypto access to their consumers around the world. We are excited to partner with Mastercard to further accelerate the widespread adoption of digital assets.
Walter Hessert, Head of Strategy at Paxos.
This enthusiasm is shared by Jorn Lambert, Chief Digital Officer at Mastercard. For him, the partnership with Paxos “brings safe and secure technology to financial institutions… as they seek to offer new advanced services to their customers.”
The rush of payment fintechs to crypto
Initially hostile to cryptocurrency, payment giants and other financial institutions are increasingly interested in digital assets. In recent months, Mastercard has partnered with various crypto operators to facilitate payments in cryptocurrency.
With Binance, the American giant launched a crypto card last August. This one allows to make purchases via crypto in millions of businesses in Latin America.
In Europe, Mastercard has turned to the exchange EurocoinPay. Together they have launched a crypto card facilitating online and physical crypto purchases.
Mastercard’s competitors are also invading the cryptocurrency market. This is notably the case with Visa, which has joined the cryptocurrency exchange FTX. Thanks to this partnership, a crypto card will be set up and will allow FTX customers to make purchases via their cryptocurrencies in about 40 countries located mainly in Latin America, Asia and Europe.
Due to the speed and very low cost of cryptocurrency transactions, digital assets are increasingly becoming the preferred method of payment. The race of financial giants to cryptocurrency reveals how this asset class is becoming more and more important in finance. States and institutions must be aware of this and start to take an interest in it. The same goes for individuals (so you) who can take advantage of our advice to take full advantage of a crypto investment.
I dream of a world where every citizen has total control over themselves, including their finances. I believe that Bitcoin is one of the tools that will achieve this revolution. Since 2019, I am learning about this cryptocurrency and spreading the word around.
