MasterCard hopes to increase confidence in crypto by allowing banks to offer trading services.
A CNBC report today by Kate Rooney reveals that MasterCard is set to act as a bridge to help banks offer crypto trading services to users.
As per the report, MasterCard will act as a bridge between Paxos, a blockchain infrastructure company with growing influence, especially in Latin America, and traditional banks to make the service possible. It is worth noting that Paxos has already made these services possible with PayPal and banks in other parts of the world.
MasterCard will be taking care of regulatory compliance and security, two major concerns that have restricted legacy financial institutions from getting involved in the crypto market. Moreover, it will also quell some of the consumers’ concerns about the emerging market. MasterCard’s chief digital officer, Jorn Lambert, noted that about 60% of respondents in a poll who are yet to enter the space would prefer to do so via the familiar traditional banks.
“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,” Lambert reportedly said. “It’s a little scary to some people still.”
Notably, MasterCard plans to start a service pilot in Q1 2023 with plans to expand to different regions worldwide.
As highlighted by the latest report, the continuous partnerships between traditional finance and crypto are ironic, as crypto was originally intended to disrupt legacy finance. However, these partnerships have continued to thrive as they improve crypto adoption and allow legacy finance to attract a new user base. Notably, MasterCard in August partnered with Binance to launch the Binance prepaid card in Argentina to allow for easier crypto payments.
The latest move by MasterCard may very well be the catalyst for the next wave of crypto adoption, even as it promises to offer new competition for crypto exchanges which could lead to better services across the board.
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