Mastercard Partners Chainlink to Enable 3 Billion Cardholders to Buy Crypto On-Chain

Chainlink and Mastercard have announced a groundbreaking partnership aimed at enabling over three billion cardholders to purchase crypto assets directly on-chain. This collaboration leverages Chainlink's secure interoperability infrastructure and Mastercard's global payments network, effectively bridging the gap between traditional finance and decentralized finance (DeFi). The partnership includes key players such as zerohash, Swapper Finance, Shift4 Payments, and XSwap, with the Uniswap protocol serving as a foundational element.

The initiative is designed to remove long-standing barriers that have hindered mainstream users from accessing the on-chain economy. zerohash provides the necessary on-chain service and liquidity to convert fiat into crypto seamlessly, while Shift4 Payments ensures smooth card processing. Swapper Finance and XSwap, built within the Chainlink ecosystem, facilitate the final execution of swaps on-chain, utilizing the Uniswap protocol for liquidity. This integrated approach creates a compliant and intuitive user experience, making crypto access directly available to mainstream payment cardholders.

Sergey Nazarov, Co-Founder of Chainlink, highlighted the significance of this convergence between traditional finance and DeFi. He expressed excitement about Chainlink's role in enabling a critical connection between the traditional payments world and the on-chain decentralized exchanges, directly benefiting the over three billion cardholders in the Mastercard user base. Nazarov also praised the collaborative efforts of the Mastercard team, Swapper Finance, XSwap, Shift4, and zerohash in making this complex implementation possible.

Raj Dhamodharan, executive vice president of Blockchain & Digital Assets at Mastercard, emphasized the growing demand for easy access to the digital assets ecosystem. He noted that Mastercard's expertise and global payments network are instrumental in bridging the gap between on-chain commerce and off-chain transactions. The partnership with Chainlink, he said, unlocks a secure and innovative way to revolutionize on-chain commerce and drive broader adoption of crypto assets.

Edward Woodford, CEO & Co-Founder of zerohash, underscored the importance of zerohash's infrastructure in powering seamless, compliant crypto-to-crypto swaps. zerohash provides the necessary compliance, custody, and transaction infrastructure, making it possible to convert fiat into crypto for smart contract consumption in a regulated manner. This infrastructure simplifies access to decentralized exchanges through compliant onboarding, abstracting away the complexities of smart contracts and low-latency on-chain transactions.

Drew Turchin, Head of Business Development at Uniswap Labs, highlighted the foundational role of the Uniswap protocol in on-chain markets. He expressed excitement about Swapper Finance leveraging the protocol, noting that it serves as critical infrastructure in the financial stack. This collaboration is another example of how the Uniswap protocol continues to enable developers to build new tools for a wide range of users.

The Swapper Finance platform, powered by Chainlink, is now live and available. This platform represents a significant step forward in making crypto assets more accessible to a broader audience, leveraging the strengths of both Chainlink and Mastercard to create a seamless and secure user experience.