Yesterday Mastercard published a blog post in which it said it would natively support digital currencies on its network this year. So cardholders can choose to pay with stablecoins. We briefly contrast the approaches of the big payments firms.
Mastercard is keen to embrace compliant stablecoins and central bank digital currencies (CBDC) sooner rather than later but seems keen to avoid directly touching cryptocurrencies. Both Visa and Mastercard are happy to have their cards used as cryptocurrency on and off-ramps via branded cryptocurrency exchange cards. So far, Visa is taking the B2B2C route when it comes to cryptocurrencies, so not natively supporting them for consumers as yet. And PayPal has gone all-in and provides a cryptocurrency wallet, with Paxos handling the technology.
Coming back to the Mastercard announcement, “This change may open merchants up to new customers who are already flocking to digital assets, and help sellers build loyalty with existing customers who want this additional option,” says the Mastercard post.
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