Payment Giant MasterCard’s Plans to Create Crypto Version of Venmo
Payment giant MasterCard has revealed its intention to create a crypto version of Venmo to enable consumers, merchants, and financial institutions to transact between fiat and crypto.
According to the information at our disposal, MasterCard has already filed more than 250 patents related to blockchain and digital assets as part of this initiative and its long-term vision to advance financial inclusion and create a cashless society.
The Challenges and Experts’ Opinion
While this initiative is expected to significantly transform the crypto industry, its successful implementation would require engineering legwork, important partnerships, regulatory support, and Wall Street’s interest. As part of its plans, MasterCard has disclosed that it would collaborate with banks to expand its functionality.
Commenting on this, Mastercard’s executive vice president of blockchain and digital assets, Raj Dhamodharan, disclosed that the team is currently working to find the missing puzzle of the whole project – a “fully compliant framework and consumer experience offered on-chain.” According to him, this could position its project in the same frequency as Venmo and Zelle.
Speaking on the progress so far, Dhamodharan disclosed that the team has successfully made inroads with the likes of JPMorgan and Standard Chartered for the development of use cases. Specifically, their involvement would facilitate the design of cross-border payments and tokenizing deposits as well as carbon credits. Additionally, he hinted that several key players in the traditional financial markets have shown interest in joining the project.
“We bring the scale and reach that we have to the space for the money to flow between the two worlds simply…Some of the players in the traditional financial world are interested in moving into this base because of the benefits the technology offers and the new business models it can create.”
Experts currently foresee challenges coming from the regulatory uncertainties in the US. According to them, most traditional financial institutions have been held back from making massive moves into the industry. As indicated in our earlier discussion, the incoming SEC chair, Paul Atkins, has, however, taken the initial step to correct this through a “rational, coherent, and principled” approach in his dealings with the industry.
MasterCard’s Crypto Moves
Regardless of the existing challenges, MasterCard is reported to have introduced more than 100 crypto-related programs globally, including credit cards, prepaid cards, and rewards cards. It has also supported more than 43 blockchain startups since the inception of its “start-up accelerator program.”
Apart from these initiatives, MasterCard has also introduced a Crypto Credential in the UAE and Kazakhstan to simplify crypto transactions. As detailed in our last news piece, the payment giant completed this project through collaboration with regulated exchanges in the targeted countries.
MasterCard recently also sealed a partnership with Ondo Finance to enable easy access to tokenized treasuries and reduce settlement delays, as noted in our earlier post.