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Mastercard has acquired the New York State BitLicense to legalize its provision of blockchain-based settlement services.
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The move is one in a series aimed at converging digital assets with traditional finance infrastructure.
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While widely praised for adoption, a critic has pointed out that it is only an intermediary interested in fee collection.
The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has officially granted Mastercard a BitLicense to legalize its venture into crypto payments.
The license, introduced in August 2015, is considered the “gold standard” for cryptocurrency oversight. It holds the strictest requirements for compliance, cybersecurity, and consumer protection in the industry.
With it, Mastercard can now support blockchain-based settlements for part of its 3.1 billion global cardholders. This is about 37% of the total global population. Its services will span transmission, storage, and conversion of cryptocurrencies, including the trading of stablecoins and tokenized deposits.
Mastercard ventures into the crypto ecosystem
Notably, the latest approval comes just days after the payments network partnered with the decentralized oracle Chainlink. The latter now provides real-time blockchain-based data to support crypto purchases through Mastercard.
The payments giant also acquired London-based stablecoin payment infrastructure provider BVNK in a deal valued at up to $1.8 billion. This marked the largest corporate acquisition in the history of stablecoins. It also positioned Mastercard as a leading link between traditional banking systems and on-chain networks across more than 130 countries.
Regarding the BitLicense, John Lambert, the chief product officer of the firm, said:
“Clear regulatory frameworks play an important role in building trust and confidence as new forms of digital value move from experimentation toward practical application.”
Rival actions and public comments
Visa – Mastercard’s biggest rival and the largest payment processing network in the world – has made similar crypto integration moves to its payment rails.
Last month, Visa expanded its multi-chain global stablecoin settlement pilot to include five additional blockchains for its business-to-business services.
On crypto Twitter, one commenter championed Mastercard, saying that massive crypto adoption was reliant on institutional promotion rather than “not seed phrases and self-custody.”
Another not-so-optimistic user claimed the payment firms are collecting intermediary fees instead of letting the reward go to miners as Satoshi intended.
