Mastercard will allow U.S. customers to conduct cryptocurrency transactions

The U.S. financial corporation Mastercard has entered into an agreement with cryptocurrency storage platform Bakkt, which will allow the corporation’s U.S. customers to conduct a number of cryptocurrency transactions within the company-owned international payment system of the same name. The announcement was posted on Mastercard’s website Monday.

“Mastercard and Bakkt have announced the formation of a multi-stakeholder partnership to facilitate merchants, banks and fintech companies to use and provide a wide range of cryptocurrency solutions and services.”

Payment system customers will be able to sell, buy and store cryptocurrencies in wallets running on the Bakkt platform. In addition, the agreement will make it easier to issue cryptocurrency debit and credit cards.

Mastercard also intends to integrate cryptocurrency into its loyalty programs. Thus, the company’s partners will be able to accrue cryptocurrency to clients instead of ordinary points. Consumers, in turn, will be able to convert the cryptocurrency to pay for purchases.

In February 2021, Mastercard announced its intention to launch transactions with several cryptocurrencies within its international payment system this year. At that time, it was not specified which cryptocurrencies the company was going to serve.