Mastercard Expands Crypto Card Programme

Mastercard has already partnered with crypto exchanges, including Binance, Nexo, and Gemini, to offer crypto-linked payment cards in some countries.

The Binance cards enable users to make payments in traditional currencies, funded by their cryptocurrency holdings on the exchange. Banks have grown wary of crypto clients after several big crypto firms collapsed last year, including the bankruptcy of major exchange FTX.

Meanwhile, regulators in the United States are increasingly cracking down on what they say is a lack of compliance in the market.

Mastercard’s head of crypto and blockchain, Raj Dhamodharan, declined to comment on Binance specifically, but said any card programme “goes through full due diligence” and is continuously monitored. Some banks, including Santander and NatWest, limit the amount of money UK customers can transfer to cryptocurrency exchanges to protect consumers from scams and fraud.

In November, rival Visa severed its global credit card agreements with FTX. Dhamodharan said that Mastercard is “not here to pick winners” or “which transaction should happen or shouldn’t happen.” He added that Mastercard’s network undergoes numerous compliance checks and that the company has invested in crypto analytics technology.