Mastercard is focusing on 5 key areas to make crypto-currencies “an everyday payment method”

A Mastercard executive said, “One day soon, the ability to own and spend digital currency could be as seamless as making a contactless card payment.“

Mastercard focuses on 5 major areas covering Crypto, Metaverse, and NFTs.

Mastercard on Wednesday highlighted five different areas it is working on to “Make crypto-currencies an everyday payment method“.

Raj Dhamodharan, executive vice president of Digital Asset and Blockchain Products & Digital Partnerships at Mastercard, explained, “Digital assets like crypto-currencies and central bank digital currencies. [CBDCs] Have the potential to transform the infrastructure of the financial system. “He adds that non-fungible tokens (NFTs), blockchain gaming and metaverse experiments”could change the way consumers shop and communicate.“

The leader opined:

One day soon, the ability to own and spend digital currency could be as seamless as making a contactless card payment.

Raj Dhamodharan then outlined five key areas Mastercard is working on to make this happen. The first area is cryptographic cards. He said Mastercard has already announced dozens of new crypto card programs around the world this year. For example, in the U.S., the payments giant has been working with Gemini on a credit card that pays rewards in crypto-currencies. In Argentina, the company launched a prepaid card with Binance. In Europe, Mastercard recently announced the world’s first physical debit card that can be customized to include a customer’s NFT avatar.

The second area is services for crypto-currencies. Noting that “Mastercard is a provider of cybersecurity, digital identification, consulting and banking services open to tens of thousands of financial institutions“, Raj Dhamodharan said the company would use the same tools “to provide more support to crypto-currency players and issuers.“Mastercard has expanded its advisory work to include a dedicated crypto practice and completed the purchase of Ciphertrace last year. The company will soon launch a new crypto monitoring product called Crypto Secure.

The third area is payments. “We’ve partnered with a handful of leading crypto-focused companies – including Paxos, Circle, Evolve and Uphold – to develop ways for people to quickly convert their crypto to fiat to make payments. This work will support current and future crypto currency card partnerships“, the executive detailed.

Noting that the fourth area focuses on crypto on Mastercard networks, Raj Dhamodharan stressed:

An important way to expand people’s choices is to bring certain Mastercard-approved digital assets onto our networks, a plan we announced last year and which continues to progress.

The fifth area is metavers and non-fungible tokens (NFT). Mastercard is working to expand its partnerships to support NFTs and the metaverse, Dhamodharan explained. For example, Coinbase users can now pay for NFTs with Mastercard.

In conclusion, the Mastercard executive noted that the payments giant already operates “a trusted global network that allows payments to be made with a simple touch or click.“He added:”This is what the crypto economy needs to support the next million users – or the next billion“, stating:

We are excited to prioritize these core areas to give people better access to the crypto ecosystem and help it continue to innovate and grow.