Mastercard and Bakkt collaborate to add Bitcoin to the global payment network

News • 2021/10/27 • by

Key Takeaways

Mastercard is planning to allow its partnering financial institutions and merchants to introduce virtual assets into their operations.

Mastercard is planning to implement this plan in collaboration with the cryptocurrency platform, Bakkt.

The new development is expected to help in boosting the widespread adoption of digital assets around the world.

The products that are planned to be contained in this are the bitcoin wallet, debit, and credit cards that will be allowed to earn crypto bonuses and expend digital currency, and also a loyalty program that will enable the airline clients and hotel patrons to accumulate which they can change for virtual currencies.

Mastercard is to make public its intention to allow its many associated financial institutions and businesses to accept cryptocurrencies. The Firm is working on this with the prominent Crypto exchange platform, Bakkt.

This will include a bitcoin wallet, debit and credit cards that allow users to earn crypto rewards and spend digital money, as well as a loyalty program that allows airline and hotel customers to amass points that can be exchanged for crypto currencies.

The two companies' executives emphasized that Bakkt would be responsible for providing custodial services to financial institutions who adopted the innovation.

Mastercard said that it has relationships with around 2,200 financial institutions worldwide.

Given the Company's massive international payment infrastructure, this connection may assist drive global adoption of digital assets.

MasterCard revealed three months ago that it processed 2.7 billion switch transactions in Q2 of this year, with 2.85 billion Mastercard and Maestro cards used.

Between April and June of this year, the Company earned 4.53 billion dollars, a tremendous 35.8% increase over the same period in 2020.

This latest move is part of Mastercard's larger cryptocurrency push. For the corporation's ambition to expand its operations into the virtual assets market, it stated a year ago that it would buy cryptocurrency intelligence startup CipherTrace.

What do you think of this new development? Will it boost worldwide acceptance of digital assets?