WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF

Most people now hold some form of crypto and even though they resisted at first Mastercard has now jumped on the bandwagon to support crypto globally.

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Mastercard, who first said they would never do anything with crypto then launched it into their platform, have now announced that they’re teaming up with blockchain infrastructure platform Paxos to help banks and fintechs “offer their customers crypto trading services.”

A recent Mastercard survey found that 29 percent of respondents globally hold cryptocurrency as an investment, with another 65 percent indicating a preference for crypto-related services to be provided by their current financial institution, so naturally the company jumped on the bandwagon to test the water.

The new Mastercard Crypto Source programme as its known has a simple objective – to make it easy for banks and fintechs to help their customers buy, hold, and sell select crypto assets, which will then be augmented with a variety of Mastercard’s other cyber, identity, security, and advisory services.

In the meantime Paxos will provide crypto-asset trading and custody services on behalf of the banks, while Mastercard’s technology will integrate those capabilities into banks’ interfaces.

Ajay Bhalla, President of Cyber and Intelligence at Mastercard, said “What we are announcing today is a connected approach to services that will help bring users safely and securely into the crypto ecosystem. Our recent investments in this space, such as the acquisition of CipherTrace and Ekata, are providing us with a unique set of capabilities to help provide our customers and consumers with the most technically advanced crypto solutions available in the market.”