Mastercard Expands Stablecoin Payment Support, Partners With OKX to Launch Crypto Card

Payments giant Mastercard unveiled a “360-degree” approach that allows 150 million merchants across its network to receive payments in stablecoins.

The stablecoin settlement support comes amid increasing global regulatory clarity on digital assets, particularly stablecoins.

Mastercard announced its partnership with payments processor Nuvei and stablecoin issuers Circle and Paxos to enable a seamless payment ecosystem.

With the “global end-to-end stablecoin acceptance and payments capabilities,” Mastercard aims to grab stablecoin’s evolving regulatory clarity to ensure people and businesses can benefit most from it.

“We believe in the potential of stablecoins to streamline payments and commerce across the value chain,” said Jorn Lambert, chief product officer at Mastercard.

“Unlocking this is core to how we navigate the rapidly changing world, giving people and businesses the freedom they want by providing the choices they deserve.”

Today, we announced our end-to-end capabilities to support stablecoins, ensuring payments can be made or received using them – anytime, anywhere. Alongside proven leaders across Web3, finance and fintech, we’re empowering consumers and businesses to use stablecoins as easily as… pic.twitter.com/6uSpMlNK9z

The payments firm is also launching a crypto card in partnership with OKX crypto exchange. Dubbed “OKX Card,” the product leverages OKX’s leadership in crypto trading, providing millions with easy access to their funds.

“Mastercard and OKX will explore new opportunities to help people meaningfully engage with digital assets,” the release noted.

Further, Mastercard’s initiative covers a full range of stablecoin use cases, including wallet enablement and card issuance to merchant settlement and on-chain remittances. The firm has previously partnered with crypto exchanges, including Kraken, Crypto.com and Binance, to allow stablecoin payments via traditional cards.

The firm also launched its Multi-Token Network (MTN) in 2023, that facilitates real-time settlements and redemptions of tokenized assets.

With the US lawmakers introducing the bipartisan GENIUS Act to create a regulatory framework for stablecoins, the asset class is gaining traction among mainstream payments and institutional adoption.

Standard Chartered Bank recently predicted that the size of the stablecoin market could go up by about 10-fold to $2 trillion within the next three years.

“US legislation on stablecoins would further legitimise the stablecoin industry,” Geoff Kendrick, global head of digital assets research at the London-based bank, and two other strategists, wrote in a report. “This has implications for both US Treasury buying (for reserve purposes) and USD hegemony.”

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