Mastercard will allow merchants in its network to offer crypto products and services – finance bitcoin news

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Payments giant Mastercard has partnered with a cryptocurrency exchange to enable its partners and merchants in the United States to offer crypto solutions, including buying, selling, and holding cryptocurrencies. “We want to make it easier for all of our partners to add crypto services to anything they do.”

Mastercard’s network integrates crypto

Mastercard (NYSE: MA) and cryptocurrency exchange Bakkt (NYSE: BKKT) announced “a multi-faceted partnership” on Monday at the Money20 / 20 event.

The partnership aims “to enable merchants, banks and fintechs in the United States to adopt and offer a wide range of cryptocurrency solutions and services,” the announcement details. “Bakkt expands Mastercard’s cryptocurrency partner ecosystem by enabling cryptocurrency as a service, which provides quick access to cryptocurrency capabilities.”

The two companies explained:

Mastercard partners will be able to offer cryptocurrency solutions. These include the ability for consumers to buy, sell and hold digital assets through custodial wallets powered by the Bakkt platform and the streamlined issuance of branded crypto debit and credit cards.

The payments giant has relationships with more than 20,000 financial institutions around the world and 2.8 billion Mastercard cards are in use, according to the company. An October 2019 Nilson report found that Visa and Mastercard both had 52.9 million merchants, more than any other business in the world.

Mastercard further revealed that crypto will also be integrated into its loyalty solutions, allowing its partners to “offer cryptocurrency as a reward and create fungibility between loyalty points and other digital assets.” The ad adds:

This means consumers can earn and spend rewards in cryptocurrency instead of traditional loyalty points and seamlessly convert their holdings into crypto to pay for their purchases.

Sherri Haymond, Executive Vice President of Digital Partnerships at Mastercard, said, “We want to give all of our partners the ability to more easily add crypto services to whatever they do. Our partners, whether banks, fintechs or traders, can offer their customers the ability to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrencies through integration with the Bakkt platform.

Bakkt CEO Gavin Michael said, “We are lowering the barriers to entry, allowing people to take something like your reward points and redeem them for crypto. It’s an easy way to get started because you’re not using cash, you’re putting something that’s an inactive asset on your balance sheet, and we allow you to put it to work.

What do you think of the fact that Mastercard helps merchants in its network integrate crypto solutions? Let us know in the comments section below.

Keywords in this story caas, crypto as a service, MasterCard, mastercard banks, bitcoin mastercard, crypto mastercard, mastercard crypto products, mastercard crypto services, mastercard cryptocurrency, mastercard merchants, mastercard network, mastercard payments network

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