Mastercard Expands Network to Include Stablecoins for Payments

Mastercard is expanding its network to include a range of stablecoins for everyday payments and cross-border settlements. The firm is working with Fiserv to support FIUSD in card products and merchant settlements, and is joining the Global Dollar network, the consortium behind the USDG stablecoin. These moves highlight the soaring institutional adoption of stablecoins, a trend that's accelerating as U.S. lawmakers move closer to regulating the sector.

Mastercard is doubling down on stablecoins with a series of partnerships and product expansions aimed at embedding regulated digital dollars into the everyday payments network. The payments giant said it will integrate several stablecoins including PayPal’s PYUSD, the Paxos-led Global Dollar (USDG) and Fiserv’s recently unveiled FIUSD into its global network, which already includes support for Circle’s USDC. It is also introducing stablecoin transactions for cross-border payments through Mastercard Move.

The company is also working with financial technology provider Fiserv to bring FIUSD support to its card products, on- and offramps and merchant settlements, and will let consumers spend both fiat and stablecoin balances under a single interface with Mastercard One Credential. These initiatives are the latest examples of global banks and payment firms racing to embrace stablecoins, a type of digital currency with prices anchored to an external asset such as fiat currencies, into their offerings. It's a rapidly growing, asset class and promises programmable transactions and faster, cheaper payments than through traditional banking channels. Institutional adoption is accelerating after the U.S. Senate passed the GENIUS Act to regulate the stablecoin sector.

"We expect that consumers and businesses will continue to use fiat currency with their Mastercard cards for most use cases," Jorn Lambert, chief product officer at Mastercard, said in a blog post. "But regulated stablecoins are undoubtedly part of the evolution of digital payments." These moves mean financial institutions and businesses could soon mint, redeem and settle transactions using select stablecoins, while consumers may use them in the same way they would use traditional currencies for transfers and payments, including at the firm’s 150 million merchant locations.

The stablecoin integrations join existing digital asset offerings, which span card programs with crypto firms that allow users to spend their crypto holdings. Future plans include enabling programmable payments via Mastercard's Multi-Token Network.