Mastercard Introduces Crypto Source Product for Banks
Godfrey Benjamin Oct 17, 2022 18:00
Payments giant, Mastercard has launched a new product to help banks get on board the crypto train faster
American multinational financial services giant Mastercard Inc has launched its latest product dubbed the Crypto Source as it is exploring new avenues to let banks within its network offer crypto-related products in a compliant manner.
Riding on the feedback from its New Payments Index, it recently published, which shows as many as 65% of respondents of crypto savvy individuals will prefer it if they can access regular crypto offerings from their already trusted financial institution.
Understanding this position of retail investors and the realization that banks shy away from crypto because of compliance and security risks accounted for why Mastercard floated the Crypto Source product.
As announced, financial institutions subscribing to this product will be able to offer Buy, Sell or Hold services to their customers. The product is offered in conjunction with top cryptocurrency platforms in the Web3.0 ecosystem, including Paxos.
“At Mastercard, trust is our business. What we are announcing today is a connected approach to services that will help bring users safely and securely into the crypto ecosystem. Our recent investments in this space, such as the acquisition of CipherTrace and Ekata, are providing us with a unique set of capabilities to help provide our customers and consumers with the most technically advanced solutions available in the market,” said Ajay Bhalla, President, Cyber & Intelligence at Mastercard.
Bradley Duke, Co-CEO & Founder at ETC Group, commented about Mastercard's latest move:
“In a single week, we have seen Mastercard announce their crypto trading offering and BNY Mellon launching crypto custody. At ETC Group we see these moves from such large corporations as a big vote of confidence in the future of crypto as an asset class.”
Hugo Feiler, CEO of decentralised blockchain protocol Minima, believed “this trend of mainstream financial services payments players becoming involved in crypto and blockchain as a positive sign," adding that "Cryptocurrencies are often thought of as stores of value and methods for market speculation and until recently were seen as wholly disruptive and antagonistic to the traditional banking and payments industry."
Besides the trading and custody services that the Crypto Source feature will enable banks to offer, security protection, the offering of crypto spend and cashout capabilities, as well as crypto program management will also be on offer to banks subscribing to the new Mastercard service.
Understandably, mainstream financial giants have been quite cautious regarding the nature of the crypto products they make available, especially to retail investors. The majority of banks have focused on custody services targeting institutional investors, the latest of which is BNY Mellon, and this Mastercard Crypto Source may be just the needed boost most of them require.
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