Mastercard’s head of crypto and blockchain said Mastercard will expand its cryptocurrency payment card programme by seeking more partnerships with crypto firms.
Mastercard has already partnered with crypto exchanges such as Binance, Nexo, and Gemini to offer crypto-linked payment cards in some countries.
Binance cards enable customers to make payments in traditional currencies using bitcoin held on the exchange.
“We have dozens of partners around the world who offer crypto card programmes and they continue to expand,”Raj Dhamodharan, Mastercard’s head of crypto and blockchain, told Reuters on Thursday.
After a number of major crypto firms failed last year, including the bankruptcy of major exchange FTX, banks have become wary of crypto clients.
Meanwhile, US regulators are increasingly cracking down on what they claim is a lack of market compliance.
To safeguard customers from scams and fraud, certain banks, like Santander and NatWest, limit the amount of money UK customers can send to cryptocurrency exchanges.
Rival Visa terminated its global credit card relationships with FTX in November. American Express, which indicated in 2021 that it would examine adopting cryptocurrency to redeem reward points, said in February that it did not envision cryptocurrency replacing its major payment and lending services in the near term.
When asked if Mastercard is considering limiting the amount of money that can be transmitted to cryptocurrency exchanges via its payments network, Dhamodharan replied, “We’re not here to pick winners. We’re not here to pick which transaction should happen or shouldn’t happen.”
He added that Mastercard network customers must pass a series of compliance tests, and that the corporation has invested in crypto analytics technologies.
