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Chinese cryptocurrency journalist Colin Wu has shared interesting news regarding crypto coming from the Mastercard giant.
In a recent post published on the X social media platform, Wu shared that the head of crypto for Europe at Mastercard, Christian Rau, made some important statements about the company’s view of crypto, its plans to expand its usage and whether or not the company intends to launch its own blockchain platform.
Mastercard on crypto and crypto-powered payments
Christian Rau shared details of how the American giant is integrating blockchain and crypto into its global payments network. He mentioned that Mastercard views cryptocurrency as a potentially winning payment technology but not a revolution, which is a moderately optimistic view unlike that shared by many crypto enthusiasts and entrepreneurs. Per Rau, Mastercard is at the moment focused on safe and compliant payments.
"Our strategy hasn't changed in 50 years: to enable people to pay and businesses to be paid, securely and compliantly," he stated, adding that crypto is part of it and the company seeks not to reinvent a payments system but rather to improve and enrich it using crypto technology. And this focus on security and compliance for payments, he said, has been Mastercard’s strategy over the past 50 years.
He reminded readers that Mastercard already cooperates with such prominent crypto companies as Metamask wallet, Moonpay and Bitget crypto exchange, which helps it make crypto payments accessible in multiple stores.
On stablecoins and Mastercard's potential blockchain launch
Mastercard’s top executive also touched on such subjects as using stablecoins for payments and spoke about whether the company plans to create its own blockchain platform.
Speaking about another major recent growing trend in crypto — stablecoins — Rau said even though he believes that stablecoins can largely improve cross-border payments, they cannot replace services provided by the company in addition to payments, such as protection if there is a dispute.
When asked if Mastercard plans to launch its own blockchain platform, Christian Rau stated that Mastercard prioritizes interoperability with already existing solutions. However, if they cannot find what they need, they may create their own blockchain. So far, there are no such plans.
Dan Burgin
Vladislav Sopov
U.Today Editorial Team