Investing.com – In a new step toward gaining more institutional adoption, digital currencies appear to have secured the backing of the world’s largest payments company.
Mastercard says that any bank or merchant on its extensive network can soon offer crypto services.
According to US CNBC, MasterCard (NYSE:) is preparing to announce that thousands of banks and millions of merchants on its payments network can soon integrate crypto into their products.
This includes wallets, credit and debit cards that earn rewards in crypto and enable spending of digital assets, and loyalty programs where airline or hotel points can be converted into bitcoin.
partnership
To do this, the payments network has partnered with Bakkt, the crypto company recently launched by Intercontinental Exchange.
Paquette is expected to be the behind-the-scenes provider of escort services for those who sign up, executives at the two companies told CNBC.
“We want to give all of our partners the ability to more easily add crypto services to everything they do,” Sherry Haymond, Executive Vice President of Digital Partnerships at Mastercard, said in an interview.
“Our partners, whether they are banks, fintech companies or merchants, can offer their customers the ability to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrency through integration with the Baktt platform,” Sherry Haymond added.
big spread
The announcement could dramatically expand the ways in which average Americans earn and spend bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
One of the dominant global payments network, Mastercard operates more than 20,000 financial institutions around the world, and there are 2.8 billion Mastercards in use.
This comes after US regulators allowed the fund industry to offer bitcoin ETFs for the first time this month.
Meanwhile, large institutional investors such as bond giant Pimco said they are considering cryptocurrency trading.
To be noticed
This interest prompted Mastercard customers to seek help from the network in providing crypto services, according to Haymond.
“This way, banks can keep customers on their own platforms instead of seeing dollars migrate to crypto exchanges,” says Haymond.
Shares of Bakkt, which went public last week, surged more than 70% on the news.
Mastercard and Bakkt are set to announce their partnership later Monday at the annual Money20/20 conference in Las Vegas.
More customers
Besides providing cryptocurrency wallets and credit cards to banks, the partnership means that even merchants and restaurants can start offering rewards with bitcoin instead of traditional points, according to Bakkt CEO Gavin Michael.
And Gavin Michael said that existing points can be converted to crypto at rates set by participating companies, giving customers the ability to earn a return.
“We lower the entry barriers, and we allow people to take something like your reward points and trade them in cryptocurrencies,” Michael said in an interview.
“It’s an easy way forward because you’re not using cash, you’re putting something that is an idle asset that’s on your balance sheet, and we’re letting you tap into it,” Michael added.
market now
Bitcoin rose during those moments to the highest levels of 63.1 thousand, with an increase of close to 5%, while it rose by about 2% within a week.
Bitcoin has increased by more than 115 percent since the beginning of the year, while it has risen by 50 percent in thirty days, while its market value is $1.191 trillion.
Bitcoin reached an all-time high of $69.93 thousand in the middle of last week with the launch of the Prosher Bitcoin Futures Fund.
Ethereum rose during those moments of Monday’s trading by 2.6% to levels of $4.15 thousand.
While Binance Coin and Cardano rose by 2.4% and 1% to the levels of $487 and $2.15, respectively.
It increased by more than 10% to levels of $ 209, and rose 0.4% to levels of $ 1.1.
While polka dot rose 3% to levels of $43.75 and increased 1.6 percent to levels of $0.2675.
The article does not express a recommendation or nomination, but merely a monitoring of market fluctuations, as trading in digital currencies involves high risks, including the risk of losing some or all of the investment amount, knowing that it is not completely subject to financial authorities and markets.
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