Mastercard’s Chief Digital Officer, Jorn Lambert, said, “There’s a lot of consumers out there that are really interested in this, and intrigued by crypto, but would feel a lot more confident if those services were offered by their financial institutions.”
Mastercard announced its partnership with Paxos, a crypto brokerage platform, to allow banks to offer crypto trading services to clients.
The news came a few days after Mastercard’s rival, Visa, revealed its plans to launch debit cards in partnership with FTX.
Mastercard's product, titled "Crypto Source", aims to remove the skepticism against crypto by allowing users to trade virtual assets straight from their banks. The firm plans to launch Crypto Source in Brazil, Israel, and the US by Q1 2023.
In the words of Ajay Bhalla, Mastercard's President of Cyber & Intelligence solutions,
“[Buying crypto] from your own bank where you have your bank account is a very big need from the market and something consumers want.”
The fintech giant will act as a bridge between Paxos and traditional banks.
Paxos will be responsible for offering crypto trading facilities and custodial solutions. This will allow several traditional banks to integrate crypto services into their ecosystems without showing crypto assets on their balance sheets.
Mastercard will manage security and regulatory formalities on behalf of the banks, thus handling the major issues which cause most banks to avoid cryptocurrencies.
Lambert noted,
"It’s hard to believe that the crypto industry will truly go mainstream without embracing the financial industry as we know it."
