Payments giant Mastercard has partnered with blockchain infrastructure platform Paxos to launch a new program dubbed “Crypto Source” to enable banks to offer clients secure crypto trading services, Mastercard said in a Monday press release.
According to the release, Crypto Source will act as an intermediary between Paxos and banks. Mastercard said it would handle regulatory compliance and security. The payments platform stated that Crypto Source is currently being prepared for pilot programs.
Mastercard to Help Banks Offer Secure Crypto Trading
As part of the partnership, Paxos will provide crypto asset trading and custody services on behalf of the banks, while Mastercard will integrate these services into banks’ interfaces.
“Our commitment is simple – to explore crypto and the underlying digital assets technology to support consumer choice in payments. Today is an exciting step in our crypto journey that draws on the strengths of our global businesses, from open banking and identity verification to analytics and fraud monitoring to settlement solutions,” Mastercard’s chief digital officer, Jorn Lambert, said.
Following macroeconomic conditions, top crypto assets have lost more than 50% of their value this year. Mastercard, however, noted that despite the bear market, polling shows there is still increasing demand for the asset class, but investors prefer to get exposure to digital assets through their traditional banks – who are skeptical about getting into crypto due to regulatory compliance and security issues.
Mastercard said its role in this is to help banks maintain crypto compliance rules, verify transactions, and provide anti-money laundering and identity monitoring services.
Mastercard Dives Deeper Into Crypto
Meanwhile, Mastercard has continued to dive deeper into crypto in recent times. In June, the payment platform partnered with several non-fungible tokens (NFT) marketplaces to enable investors to purchase NFTs with their Mastercard cards using either the companies’ marketplaces or their crypto services.
Mastercard also recently rolled out a new product dubbed “Crypto Secure” to help banks and other card issuers identify and prevent fraudulent or suspicious transactions from crypto exchanges.
