BNB Chain

Aug 26, 2026

BNB Chain joins Mastercard’s crypto partner program

BNB Chain said in a post on X that it has joined Mastercard’s crypto partner program. The move brings the two sides into a partnership focused on integrating digital assets into everyday commercial payment use cases. According to BNB Chain’s statement, the cooperation will center on pushing digital asset applications closer to routine payment scenarios in commerce. No additional terms, rollout timeline, or product details were disclosed in the brief announcement.

1160

Mastercard

Aug 26, 2026

Mastercard backs upcoming XRP Ledger hackathon in New York

Mastercard has joined the upcoming XRP Ledger hackathon in New York as a sponsor, according to Techub News, which cited U.Today. The update links a major payments company with an event built around the XRP Ledger ecosystem. Based on the information provided, the sponsorship points to continued interest from a traditional financial firm in exploring blockchain use cases. No additional details about the hackathon program, timing beyond its upcoming New York venue, or the scope of Mastercard’s involvement were disclosed in the source digest.

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Mastercard

Aug 26, 2026

Mastercard and Sei say institutional blockchain adoption has moved past core technical bottlenecks

Mastercard and the Sei Development Foundation have released a joint report, The foundations of institutional blockchain, arguing that institutional blockchain adoption has moved beyond earlier technical constraints. Based on more than 40 expert interviews, the report says network performance has improved by 100x since 2019, shifting the focus for production deployments toward settlement finality and governance compliance rather than raw technical feasibility alone. The report also points to growing on-chain asset tokenization. It says more than $27 billion in assets have already been tokenized on-chain, and notes that BlackRock’s tokenized Treasury fund surpassed $2.5 billion in assets under management in May. In addition, the report says institutions typically go through five stages when evaluating blockchain adoption. Priorities vary by use case: real-time payments place more weight on throughput, while treasury workflows focus more heavily on governance and compliance requirements.

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BNB Chain

Aug 26, 2026

BNB Chain joins Mastercard crypto partner program

BNB Chain has joined Mastercard’s crypto partner program, according to an official announcement cited by ChainCatcher. The partnership will connect BNB Chain with the broader Mastercard ecosystem and is aimed at expanding the use of digital assets in global payments and everyday commerce. The update was published as a 7x24 newsflash, and no additional operational details, timeline, or product specifics were disclosed in the source. Based on the information provided, the announcement centers on application-level cooperation tied to payment use cases rather than a separately detailed launch or rollout plan.

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THORWallet

Aug 24, 2026

THORWallet Card launches with self-custodial multi-chain swaps and Mastercard spending

THORWallet Card has officially launched, giving users a way to convert assets from any supported blockchain into USDC natively inside the wallet without using bridges, wrapped tokens or centralized exchanges. After funding the card, users can spend through any Mastercard-accepting merchant worldwide, while funds remain self-custodied until the point of purchase. The product comes in two tiers: a free basic plan that requires an invite code and includes a virtual card, a $125,000 monthly limit, and Apple Pay and Google Pay support; and a premium plan that also requires an invite code, costs a one-time $99 fee, includes a physical card, 0.5% USDC cashback on spending, and higher limits. THORWallet said the card program now covers 172 countries, including the United States. The company also said it has improved the cost structure and KYC flow, adding more identity verification methods to speed up approvals. Since 2021, the wallet has processed more than $2.5 billion in native swaps and supports more than 20,000 tokens.

1190

Mastercard

Aug 21, 2026

Mastercard’s stablecoin, agent commerce and AI thesis comes into focus with BVNK deal

Mastercard used its July 30 second-quarter earnings call and a same-day Motley Fool podcast appearance by CEO Michael Miebach to lay out a consistent view across three hot topics in fintech and crypto: stablecoins, agentic commerce and AI. His argument was not that every payment should stay on card rails. It was that settlement may move across several rails, while trust, security and interoperability remain the layer Mastercard intends to own. Miebach said stablecoins already have clear utility in some B2B and P2P flows, especially where correspondent banking is expensive and opaque, but argued there is "no problem to solve" for everyday pay-to-merchant spending. In agentic commerce, he drew a line between AI buying on behalf of people or businesses, where Mastercard believes cards and existing protections still fit, and machine-to-machine transactions, where on-chain permissioning and off-chain settlement may require new infrastructure. That framework helps explain Mastercard’s acquisition of BVNK, which closed on August 3 for $1.8 billion, five months earlier than originally planned. With BVNK bringing annualized stablecoin volume of about $30 billion, more than 25 licenses across 130 markets, MiCA authorization and SEPA euro connectivity, Mastercard is adding a working stablecoin settlement layer to support sending, receiving, storing and converting assets.

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Visa

Aug 18, 2026

Visa Seeks New Stablecoin Settlement Partner After Mastercard’s BVNK Deal

Visa is seeking bids for a new stablecoin settlement partner after Mastercard completed its acquisition of BVNK, the payments firm that had been performing that role, according to a CoinDesk report based on documents it reviewed. The search is centered on one settlement partner and one over-the-counter partner, both of which hold crypto exchange licenses in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Singapore. The request calls for the ability to swap and support multiple stablecoins and to provide settlement for Open USD, the token Visa named as the first supported asset on its Visa Stablecoin Platform launched on July 16. Visa built that platform for banks and fintech firms, offering wallet infrastructure, minting and burning, dual-control approvals and audit logging for institutions that want to issue or move stablecoins without building the full stack themselves. Mastercard closed its BVNK acquisition on Aug. 3. Visa had previously invested in the London-based company through Visa Ventures in May 2025, when BVNK said it was processing $12 billion in annualized stablecoin payment volume. The situation is complicated by the fact that Visa, Mastercard and Stripe all back the consortium behind Open USD.

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stablecoins

Aug 19, 2026

Rain says stablecoin payments now reach more than 100,000 merchants, often without merchants knowing it

Stablecoin payment infrastructure firm Rain says the payment flows it supports now reach more than 100,000 merchants, even though most of those merchants do not know the transactions are being settled with stablecoins in the background. According to an Aug. 19 report by The Block, Rain CEO Farooq Malik said the company’s model lets businesses issue Visa and Mastercard cards that settle against stablecoin balances, while merchants simply see an ordinary card payment moving through the existing card-network clearing rails. In practice, that means no extra merchant integration is required and no visible change appears at checkout. Rain has also been expanding its partnerships. The company said it has deepened card-issuing work with Visa and Mastercard, and that Western Union’s Stablecard is supported by Rain, using USDPT for settlement while spending on the Visa network. Rain added that it has signed more than 100 partners, operates across more than 150 countries, and has grown transaction volume by about 10x so far this year. The company’s pitch is straightforward: if stablecoins can sit behind a payment card without changing the merchant experience, adoption can spread through existing global card infrastructure rather than waiting for merchants to directly accept on-chain payments.

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