Mastercard launches crypto-linked cards in Asia

Mastercard will launch crypto payment cards in Asian markets. This was announced on Monday by representatives of the company. The new cards will help to simplify the cooperation between sellers who do not accept digital currencies as payment, and buyers who want to pay using cryptocurrencies.

The payment system has entered into a partnership agreement with Australia’s CoinJar, Hong Kong’s Amber Group and Thailand’s Bitkub. Soon, buyers and sellers in the Asia-Pacific region will be able to receive credit, debit and prepaid crypto-linked Mastercard cards. These cards can be used to pay at any place where Mastercard is accepted. The goal of the program is to make cryptocurrency transactions as comfortable as possible. Some Mastercard partners have already started accepting payments in BTC and ETH.

Rama Sridhar, Mastercard’s executive vice president of digital and emerging partnerships and new payment flows for the APAC region said that cooperation with these companies will allow the payment system to expand the possibilities of using cryptocurrencies, as well as provide customers with more convenient payment methods.

The cards will be launched just after the total capitalization of the digital asset market reached $3 trillion for the first time. This roughly corresponds to the size of the UK economy.

According to a survey conducted by Mastercard, 45% of respondents in the Asia-Pacific region will consider using cryptocurrencies next year. Cryptocurrency payments are one of the four new payment methods. The other three methods are QR codes, contactless payments and biometrics. Another survey showed that 94% of respondents are going to use at least one of them.

Earlier, Mastercard representatives said that the company willing to help central banks to create and develop national digital currencies.

In February, the payment system announced its plans to start supporting some cryptocurrencies. Since that time, the company has been showing increasing interest in digital assets.

Another payment system, Visa, is developing a blockchain network for converting cryptoassets.