Mastercard CEO Says Crypto Has a Long Way to go Before Going Mainstream

Michael Miebach, the Chief Executive Officer of American payments giant Mastercard Inc is the latest financial industry veteran to share his optimism about the future of the nascent crypto ecosystem. 

In a recent interview with Yahoo Finance, Miebach said he believes in the potential of the emerging assets, however, there are a lot of intricacies that must be resolved before the industry can go mainstream. When asked if he believes crypto can get to the point where everyone gets to use it as payment for transactions, Miebach responded by saying;

“Entirely possible, but I think it’s a long way to go before crypto becomes mainstream.”

Among the things he pointed out, that will need to be sorted include the ease of purchase of crypto and its associated products like Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). The compliance and security aspects of these emerging protocols have also remained a frail part that has created significant loopholes that must be covered in a bid to truly chart the mainstream embrace of the sector. 

“I think this question on regulatory compliance, on scalable technology, on making sure it’s a predictable user experience – why is buying an NFT such a clunky experience? It shouldn’t be,” Miebach said in the interview.

Mastercard has been playing a central role in helping to get crypto products across to users around the world. Many crypto exchanges and service providers have partnered with Mastercard to issue co-branded payment cards to their users for easy crypto transactions. 

Notably, Miebach said Mastercard’s involvement in the crypto ecosystem extends beyond direct payment and into Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). For Miebach, the crypto industry may have a lot of headwinds at this time, but the possibility that they will grow into a dominant aspect of the financial ecosystem in the long term is high.