Mastercard continues to increase its presence in the crypto space. Via a press release, the payment company announced the acquisition of crypto intelligence company CipherTrace.
The objective is to improve Mastercard’s crypto capabilities, according to the release. CipherTrace allegedly has “insight into more than 900 cryptocurrencies”.
The crypto company provides its clients with a service to track and shield the activity for cryptocurrency related programs, the release claims. This is how exchanges, financial institutions, banks, and others, can leverage CipherTrace data analytics capacities to “help customers convert on their opportunities across 7,000+ cryptocurrency entities”.
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The CEO of CipherTrace Dave Jevans said the following about his company and the collaboration with Mastercard:
We help companies – whether they are banks or cryptocurrency exchanges, government regulators or law enforcement to keep the crypto economy safe. Our two companies share this vision to provide security and trust throughout the ecosystem. We are thrilled to join the Mastercard family to scale CipherTrace’s reach across the globe.
Mastercard claims that trust will be an important aspect of the crypto industry as it starts to increase it levels of adoption in the form of cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Mastercard believes these assets will be part of people’s everyday life.
Thus, Mastercard and CipherTrace will create a join offering comprised of the crypto company’s “suite of digital assets” and the payments company’s “cyber security solution”. In that way, consumers will have tools to aid them at managing their crypto portfolio’s regulatory and compliance requirements.
Ajay Bhalla, president of Mastercard’s Cyber & Intelligence division, said the following on the acquisition:
Digital assets have the potential to reimagine commerce, from everyday acts like paying and getting paid to transforming economies, making them more inclusive and efficient. With the rapid growth of the digital asset ecosystem comes the need to ensure it is trusted and safe. Our aim is to build upon the complementary capabilities of Mastercard and CipherTrace to do just this
How Mastercard Will Combine Its Technology With A Crypto Company
In addition to its products and capabilities, CipherTrace will aid Mastercard in the search for “continued innovation”. To achieve this goal, the companies will work with many partners in the fintech, crypto, and public sector.
Mastercard will use its Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other technologies to allow its clients around the world to build digital assets and crypto related products complying with regulations, the release emphasized. Companies will be able to track their real time payment infrastructure.
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The acquisition, Mastercard said, is part of a bigger strategy by the company to create new products that leverage the underlying technology that powers cryptocurrencies. The payments giant has already consolidated important partnerships to materialize its ambitious.
Amongst them it’s the collaboration with Uphold, Gemini, BitPay, and others to create cards that enable consumers to spend their crypto funds. In addition, the company will help create, test, and support platform to host CBDCs, NFTs, and other digital assets.
Both Mastercard, and its competitor VISA have been betting heavily on the space. As Bitcoinist recently reported, VISA purchased its first NFT in addition to a number of investments in other crypto related companies and platforms.
Related Reading | VISA Buys CryptoPunk For $150K, What This Means For The Ethereum Ecosystem
At the time of writing, Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies are recovering the recent crash, some are showing signs of recovery. BTC trades at $46,990 with a 1.4% profit in the daily chart.
