Mastercard Will Let Customers Pay In Cryptocurrencies This Year

Cryptocurrencies have increased in value and validity in recent years, and now Mastercard intends to allow its users to use certain digital currencies. 

Following the lead of the likes of PayPal, Mastercard will begin letting customers pay in several cryptocurrencies this year. The move comes in the wake of some digital currencies reaching new heights in terms of value. Most notably, the value of Bitcoin recently hit record heights and Tesla even invested in the emerging currency.

The move by Mastercard has been enabled through a series of partnerships, and the company has explained why it has now decided to accept some cryptocurrencies and how it hopes it will improve its services.

Raj Dhamodharan, executive vice president of digital asset products, detailed the change of policy in a blog:

Our change to supporting digital assets directly will allow many more merchants to accept crypto – an ability that’s currently limited by proprietary methods unique to each digital asset.

This change will also cut out inefficiencies, letting both consumers and merchants avoid having to convert back and forth between crypto and traditional to make purchases.

Mastercard has enabled digital currency previously, but this change should guarantee that merchants will accept the payment and that exchanges can be completed with the ease of traditional transactions. This should make cryptocurrency transactions more viable for a greater number of people and may increase its already rising popularity.

Dhamodharan also noted the hopes that Mastercard had for the future with digital currencies:

We are inspired by so much of the work going on in the payments world – in banking, in emergent fintechs, in crypto – to push forward change. And we are doing as much as we can to set the stage for these players to take the next step forward.

However, the company will not be blindly accepting all cryptocurrencies. Mastercard has stated that it ‘will be very thoughtful about which assets we support,’ and also noted that there will be a focus on consumer protection when it allows the currencies to be traded. At the moment, no currencies have been specifically named as part of this initiative, but many will expect the biggest cryptocurrencies to be tradable.

Many will see this decision as a significant step forward in making digital currencies mainstream. This commitment reflects the success of cryptocurrency, and it will be interesting to see if these moves make it less volatile in the future.