Mastercard has introduced Global Money Platform, a new service that lets businesses connect digital currencies with traditional banking and card services, a step aimed at making stablecoin payments easier to offer without building in-house infrastructure.
The company said Thursday that the launch is its first major integration with BVNK since Mastercard acquired the stablecoin infrastructure company in August.
What the platform allows businesses to do
According to Mastercard, companies using the platform can hold and convert fiat currencies and stablecoins, offer cards linked to stablecoin balances, and send payments directly from stablecoin balances into recipients’ local bank accounts.
The service is connected to Mastercard Move, the company’s global money transfer network. Mastercard said that network can route payments to more than 17 billion destinations, including bank accounts and cards.
It also ties stablecoin balances into Mastercard’s merchant network, allowing customers to spend those balances with payment cards. Nuvei, Marqeta and several other fintech companies are among the first integration partners.
Mastercard expands beyond payment processing
The rollout pushes Mastercard further into infrastructure services that financial companies can use to offer stablecoin products under their own brands, rather than limiting the company’s role to payment processing alone.
That also places Mastercard in closer competition with Visa. In July, Visa launched a platform that allows financial institutions to hold, mint and transfer stablecoins.
Launch arrives as stablecoin activity rises
The announcement comes as stablecoin transaction activity is picking up. Research from Standard Chartered said transaction activity has been growing even though the circulating supplies of major tokens such as USDt and USDC have remained relatively flat this year.