- Mastercard holders will soon be able to purchase crypto directly on-chain through fiat-to-crypto conversion, via a partnership between Chainlink and the payments company.
- The partnership also involves a number of other technology and infrastructure partners, including zerohash, Shift4 Payments and the decentralised exchange XSwap.
Blockchain interoperability and oracle network, Chainlink, announced on June 24 that it’s teamed up with global payments giant, Mastercard, to allow card holders worldwide to securely and easily purchase crypto assets directly on-chain through fiat-to-crypto conversion.
This new initiative couples Chainlink’s interoperability infrastructure with Mastercard’s established payments network and promises to broaden access to crypto to investors who’ve previously been deterred by crypto’s complexity and confusing user interfaces.
I’m excited about Chainlink’s ability to enable this critical connection between the traditional payments world and the over three billion cardholders in the Mastercard user base, directly into the next generation trading environments of onchain decentralized exchanges.
Sergey Nazarov, Chainlink co-founderPosting on X / Twitter, Chainlink’s official account described the partnership as “a major step forward in the mainstream adoption of Web3”.
In addition to Chainlink and Mastercard, other players are also involved at various points throughout the fiat-to-crypto conversion process. According to Chainlink’s announcement:
- zerohash provides “the core compliance, custody, and transaction infrastructure”;
- Shift4 Payments powers the “seamless card processing”;
- SwapperFinance is the platform users interact with to buy their crypto-assets; and
- Chainlink-based decentralised exchange, XSwap, is leveraged to conduct the actual on-chain swaps.
The market seemed to respond positively to news of the partnership with Chainlink’s native token, LINK, surging around 16% on the day of the announcement and currently sitting at US$13.41 (AU$20.62) according to CoinGecko. However, this surge also coincided with a general crypto market rally.
Related: Chainlink Powers Breakthrough CBDC Exchange in Hong Kong-Australia Pilot
Mastercard Continues Push Into Crypto
This partnership marks the latest example of Mastercard’s ongoing push into crypto. In April, the payments giant announced an expansion of its existing Multi-token Network and Crypto Credential System which it claimed would simplify buying crypto, making it similar to the experience offered by popular payments app Venmo.
Related: Mastercard to Bring a “Venmo-Like” Experience to Blockchain Payments
Just last month Mastercard announced a partnership with leading crypto on-ramp provider Moonpay enabling cryptocurrency wallet users to create ‘virtual Mastercards’ allowing them to spend stablecoins directly from their wallet with any merchant in Mastercard’s network — with over 150 million merchants worldwide.
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