Mastercard is setting itself to declare that any of the banks and merchants on its payment platform can soon include cryptocurrency into their products, CNBC reported.
Mastercard to include crypto in its payment platform
The firm will now allow debit & credit cards, and bitcoin wallets that earn rewards in the digital currency to allow digital assets to be expended. It will also allow airline and hotel points in loyalty programs to be transformed into bitcoin.
To enable this endeavor, Mastercard is collaborating with BAKKT LLC, the crypto firm that was recently created by the Intercontinental Exchange, executives of both the firms told CNBC.
Mastercard’s Executive Vice President of Digital Partnerships, Sherri Haymond, stated that the firm strived to deliver accessibility to crypto services to all its partners. Haymond stated that every client of Mastercard will now be allowed to buy, sell, and possess crypto through a collaboration with the BAKKT portal.
The declaration could facilitate an important extension in the manner in which Americans spend and earn crypto. Mastercard holds one of the most eminent global payment networks alongside Visa and fosters relationships with over 20,000 financial entities across the globe. According to the firm, around 2.8 billion Mastercards are in use at present.
Attention towards bitcoin has reached an all-time high as the digital currency’s value increased in 2021, hitting a whopping price of over USD 60,000 in October. US regulators have enabled the fund industry to deliver a bitcoin-linked ETF for the foremost time in October, whilst big institutional investors like Pimco have stated that they were bearing in mind to trade digital currencies.
This attention has made Mastercard consumers ask the firm for support in facilitating cryptocurrency services, according to Haymond. Hence, in this manner, banks can maintain consumers on their platforms rather than witnessing money migrate to cryptocurrency exchanges, she said.
Apart from providing cryptocurrency wallets and credit cards for banking entities, the Mastercard-BAKKT partnership enables restaurants and merchants to offer rewards in digital currencies in place of traditional reward points, according to Gavin Michael, CEO of BAKKT. Points that already exist can be renewed into digital currency at the rates that are established by the participating firms, allowing consumers to earn a yield, Michael stated.
