Mastercard and Chainlink Enable 3 Billion Cardholders to Buy Crypto Onchain

Mastercard and Chainlink have announced a groundbreaking partnership aimed at enabling over three billion cardholders to purchase crypto assets directly onchain. This collaboration leverages Chainlink’s secure interoperability infrastructure and Mastercard’s global payments network to facilitate seamless fiat-to-crypto conversions. The initiative is designed to remove long-standing barriers that have hindered mainstream users from accessing the onchain economy.

Chainlink’s secure interoperability infrastructure, combined with Mastercard’s trusted global payments network, provides a robust framework for this new service. Zerohash, a key player in this partnership, offers the onchain service and liquidity necessary for converting fiat into crypto with seamless smart contract execution. Additional support comes from Shift4 Payments, Swapper Finance, and XSwap, which together deliver a next-generation app experience utilizing the Uniswap protocol.

Ask Aime: Can I buy crypto directly from my bank account with Mastercard?

Sergey Nazarov, Co-Founder of Chainlink, expressed enthusiasm about the partnership, stating that it represents the convergence of traditional finance and decentralized finance. He highlighted Chainlink’s role in enabling a critical connection between the traditional payments world and the onchain decentralized exchanges, directly benefiting the over three billion cardholders in the Mastercard user base. Nazarov also praised the collaborative efforts of the teams at Swapper Finance, XSwap, Shift4, and zerohash, noting the complexity and multilayered nature of the project.

Raj Dhamodharan, executive vice president, 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 being leveraged to bridge the gap between onchain commerce and offchain transactions. The partnership with Chainlink, he said, unlocks a secure and innovative way to revolutionize onchain commerce and drive the broader adoption of crypto assets.

Swapper Finance, a Chainlink-powered platform, leverages XSwap, a leading decentralized exchange (DEX) built within the Chainlink ecosystem. This integration, facilitated by zerohash and Shift4 Payments, ensures compliance, custody, and transaction infrastructure, enabling fiat-to-crypto conversions in a regulated manner. Shift4 Payments handles seamless card processing, while XSwap sources liquidity from decentralized exchanges like the Uniswap protocol, executing the final swaps onchain.

Edward Woodford, CEO & Co-Founder of zerohash, highlighted the company’s role as an infrastructure partner alongside Chainlink and Mastercard on the Swapper Finance platform. He noted that zerohash’s flexible crypto and stablecoin infrastructure powers seamless, compliant crypto-to-crypto swaps, making access to decentralized exchanges simple through compliant onboarding and low-latency onchain transactions.

Drew Turchin, Head of Business Development at Uniswap Labs, praised the Uniswap protocol’s foundational role in onchain markets, enabling developers worldwide to build new tools for a wide range of users. He expressed excitement about Swapper’s use of the protocol, noting it as another example of how the protocol serves as critical infrastructure in the financial stack.

As the adoption of crypto assets continues to grow, collaborations like the one between Mastercard and Chainlink are driving a new wave of user-centric solutions. These solutions bridge the gap between crypto-native technology and real-world usability, making it easier for mainstream users to participate in the onchain economy. Swapper Finance, the Chainlink-powered platform, is now live and available at https://swapper.finance.