Mastercard and Paxos to launch platform for cryptocurrency trading via banks

What’s new? Mastercard payment company will partner with cryptocurrency platform Paxos to launch a program that will allow financial institutions to offer a digital asset trading service. Mastercard will act as a “bridge” between Paxos and the banks and will handle regulatory compliance and security issues. Representatives of the company reported this to CNBC.

Information on the CNBC site

What do Mastercard representatives say? Mastercard noted that surveys show that respondents are interested in bitcoin despite its volatility and instability in the cryptocurrency market. About 60% of respondents said they would prefer to invest in cryptocurrencies via banks. Mastercard’s chief digital officer Jorn Lambert added:

“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.It [crypto industry] is a little scary to some people still.”

Mastercard's role is to advise banks on regulatory and transaction verification, as well as provide customer identification and anti-money laundering (KYC/AML) services. Mastercard will launch a pilot product in the first quarter of next year. Lambert declined to say which banks have already signed on.

Earlier, Mastercard unveiled new Crypto Secure software that will help banking institutions identify and reject transactions from cryptocurrency exchanges if they involve fraudulent activity.

Paxos is a fintech company specializing in blockchain. It was founded in 2012. It is regulated by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS). The organization uses tokenization, storage, trading, and digital asset settlement technologies for corporate clients. In March, Paxos was licensed by the Central Bank of Singapore. In August, the company announced the launch of a crypto exchange in cooperation with the Brazilian payment application PicPay.

Also in October, the crypto exchange FTX announced the issuance of debit cards for its customers in cooperation with Visa. The cards are already available in the US and will soon be launched in more than 40 countries in Latin America, Europe, and Asia. The next phase of implementation is expected in Europe by the end of 2022.