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Mastercard tokenized 30% of its transactions in 2024, the payment giant said in a filing with the U.S. SEC.
The company said it was making strides in blockchain-based business models and simplifying access to digital assets.
Mastercard also teamed up with various crypto firms, letting users buy crypto with cards and spend it wherever Mastercard is accepted. The company posted $28.2 billion in net revenue for 2024, marking a 12% increase from the previous year.
The firm acknowledged that stablecoins and other digital currencies are becoming real competitors in payments. Mastercard said these assets could challenge traditional financial services, especially as regulations around them develop.
In the U.S., lawmakers are drafting bills to regulate stablecoins, aiming to boost the dollar’s global role. Meanwhile, stablecoin transfers hit $27.6 trillion in 2024, surpassing both Visa and Mastercard’s volumes combined.
Elsewhere, Mastercard is expanding its support for non-custodial cryptocurrency wallets through a new collaboration with European payments provider Mercuryo.
The alliance introduces a euro-denominated debit card, allowing users to spend cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin stored in self-custodial wallets at over 100 million Mastercard merchants.
The initiative follows a recent pilot with MetaMask, a major self-custodial wallet, and aligns with Mastercard’s efforts to promote self-custody in crypto. Self-custodial wallets require users to manage their private keys, providing direct control over their digital assets without relying on centralized platforms like banks or exchanges.
Mastercard has been expanding its presence in the crypto market since 2021, forming partnerships with companies like Circle and Coinbase to integrate digital currencies into its payment network.
The new Mastercard-branded Spend card, introduced by Mercuryo, comes with fees, including a €1.60 issuance fee, a €1 monthly maintenance fee, and a 0.95% off-ramp fee.
Mastercard is also set to introduce a peer-to-peer platform for cryptocurrency users across Europe and Latin America, named the Mastercard Crypto Credential network.
The P2P network allows users to use Mastercard Crypto Credential aliases for transactions. These aliases function as vanity addresses, similar to the Ethereum Name Service (ENS) on the Ethereum network. This setup simplifies the process by replacing the traditional long string of wallet addresses with more user-friendly labels.
Mastercard’s crypto feature is expected to streamline cross-border payments, particularly in the remittances sector, which saw an estimated $831 billion in global remittances in 2022, up from $717 billion in 2020.
The pilot program includes Mastercard’s partners Bit2Me, Lirium, Mercado Bitcoin, and wallet provider FoxBit. By assigning human-readable aliases verified by Mastercard, the program helps reduce user error and mitigate financial loss by pre-screening transactions to ensure compatibility of crypto assets with the recipient’s address.
