Mastercard has announced the expansion of its Engage program, which links potential card issuers with partners that can provide technical expertise, to help bring cryptocurrency card programs to market. This will allow crypto firms to leverage the credit card giant’s global network, according to a press release.
The Engage program helps reduce the time it takes to bring crypto cards to market and creates crypto-to-fiat conversion capabilities. It also identifies and builds partnerships with companies that issue cards or are BIN sponsors looking to launch a crypto card.
Raj Dhamodharan, executive vice president for blockchain and digital assets, said, The expanded Mastercard Engage network will help empower players across the digital asset ecosystem and beyond to fulfill their ambitions at scale, paired with the safety and security that comes with the Mastercard brand.
Mastercard also named a cohort of crypto payments firms joining the Engage program, including Baanx, Credencial Payments, Episode 6, Immersve, Monavate, Moorwand, PayCaddy, Paymentology, Pomelo, Swap, and Unlimit.
This initiative by the 57-year-old credit card firm comes at a time when traditional finance firms are pushing into the digital assets space. Last month, Mastercard announced a crypto credentials program to carry out anti-money laundering (AML) checks for cross-border transactions, using technology from its blockchain analytics firm CipherTrace.