Yesterday, MasterCard published on her official blog Announcing that it will start supporting select digital currencies directly on its network in 2021.

Although, MasterCard is already working with cryptocurrency payment companies, such as Wirex and BitPay, on crypto-enabled debit cards.

However, MasterCard’s recent announcement represents a shift towards allowing cryptocurrencies to move within the company’s physical network.

The blog post stated:

Our Crypto Partners convert digital assets from their end-to-end into fiat currencies, then transfer them over the MasterCard network.

Our change to directly support digital assets will allow many merchants to accept cryptocurrencies, a capability currently restricted by the unique ownership methods of each digital asset.

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This change will also eliminate inefficiencies, allowing both consumers and merchants to avoid having to switch back and forth between crypto and traditional currencies to make purchases.

But what are the cryptocurrencies supported by “MasterCard”?

The ad is cautious on this point, with Mastercard noting that it is looking for “crypto-assets that provide reliability and security.”

What MasterCard could be alluding to are stablecoins, which are cryptocurrencies designed to hold their value based on an asset such as the US dollar so that they can be used for payments.

According to MasterCard, its criteria for integrating cryptocurrency payments are consumer protections, strict regulatory measures and KYC compliance, and more to meet the huge public desire to use cryptocurrencies rather than just invest in them.

MasterCard is a payments platform that, after all, is designed to take a percentage of each transaction.

MasterCard has previously shown interest in stablecoins.

Last September, MasterCard launched a platform for central banks to test their digital currencies, known as CBDCs.

All eyes were focused on Bitcoin this week, as the world’s largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization hit an all-time high after electric car maker Tesla bought it for $1.5 billion.

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The use of stablecoins such as “Tether” and “USDC” has increased.

Tether today reached a circulating supply of $30.5 billion which is 25% more than it was last month.

The same is true for the digital currency “USDC”, the second most popular stablecoin, which has gone from a market capitalization of $4.7 billion to $6.7 billion in the last 30 days.

late last month, stated CEO of Visa, a competitor to MasterCard:

Read:JPMorgan launches its own digital stablecoin…details here

Visa is considering adding crypto to its network.

Although he made no commitments, he added:

Upon reaching the point where a particular digital currency becomes a recognized medium of exchange, there is no reason why we can’t add it to our network, which already supports over 160 currencies today.

It appears that MasterCard speeded up the process and beat Visa in doing so.

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