Mastercard Launches New Crypto Program for Start-ups

Payment giant Mastercard announced Tuesday to kick off a new program for start-up companies to support cryptocurrency and blockchain industries.

This new Start Path global engagement program aims to support fast-growing digital assets, blockchain and cryptocurrency companies.

According to the statement from the company, at least seven digital assets and blockchain start-up companies have joined the emerging program, including Singapore-based Mintable, a platform with novel features such as gasless minting and credit card purchasing. Mintable is also designed to empower the public to get involved with non-fungible tokens (NFTs) without prior knowledge of crypto or coding.

Jess Turner, MasterCard’s executive vice president of new digital infrastructure and fintech, commented:

“Mastercard has been engaging with the digital currency ecosystem since 2015. As a leading technology player, we believe we can play a key role in digital assets, helping to shape the industry and provide consumer protection and security.”

The payment platform seeks to expand and accelerate innovation around digital asset technology and make it safer and more accessible for the public and institutions to buy, spend and hold cryptocurrencies and digital assets.

“Part of our role is to forge the future of cryptocurrency, and we’re doing that by bridging mainstream financial principles with digital assets innovations,” Turner added.

MasterCard said more than 250 start-ups had joined the Start Path program since 2014. The company provides access, tools, and solutions to these start-ups to connect with banks and merchants' ecosystems to deliver new solutions.  

Last week, MasterCards announced to enhance its function and experience using cryptocurrency wallets and exchanges with their clients, pairing with multiple crypto enterprises to convert crypto and traditional fiat money.

Mastercard understands the growing demand for digital payment from its customers. More than 93% of clients considered adopting innovative payment methods, such as biometrics, digital currencies, and QR codes. Therefore, the payment platform has announced in February to support direct crypto payments by allowing cardholders to transact crypto on its network this year directly. 

Meanwhile, Visa, one of the major competitors to Mastercard, their visa cardholders has spent more than $1 billion worth of crypto in the first six months this year by consumers globally. Recently, Visa expanded its business in Australia by approving an Australian startup CryptoSpend to issue debit cards for its customers to consume through cryptocurrencies.