Circle Engages with Mastercard to Simplify Cryptocurrency-to-Fiat Conversion Using USDC

BOSTON, July 20, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Circle, a global financial technology firm that provides payments and financial infrastructure for internet businesses, today announced an engagement with Mastercard to make it easier for consumers and businesses globally to leverage the power of USD Coin (USDC) for high-trust, low-friction transactions.

Demand for USDC has grown dramatically in the last year as users, businesses, fintechs and global payments firms increasingly turn to USDC, the world's fastest growing dollar digital currency, to fuel new payments and commerce activity on the internet. The use of USDC by Mastercard's partners to simplify cryptocurrency to fiat conversions is expected to help card issuers in the future facilitate settlement to Mastercard.

As more and more digital wallet providers around the world add support for blockchain-enabled currencies and payments, this collaboration helps to accelerate the move to more internet-native financial infrastructure. 

"The engagement between Circle and Mastercard reinforces how USDC is growing its role in payments and commerce on the internet, while building a vital bridge between digital currency payment systems and large, established payment networks," said Jeremy Allaire, Co-founder and CEO of Circle. "We are thrilled to work with Mastercard to simplify card offerings for cryptocurrency companies."

"The engagement between Mastercard and Circle fuels new payment opportunities and commerce in digital currencies," said Raj Dhamodharan, executive vice president of digital asset and blockchain products and partnerships at Mastercard. "The cryptocurrency market continues to mature and we are driving it forward together to reduce friction and create choice for people."

Expanding Economic Activity, Increasing Efficiency, and Driving Adoption of USDC

Specifically, the engagement between Circle and Mastercard reduces the steps required for card issuers that support USDC in digital currency wallets:

• Today, card issuers that enable payments using digital assets need to first convert those assets to fiat before settling a transaction.
  
  
• That extra step is costly and complex for issuers, particularly because many digital assets do not have the same price stability with the U.S. dollar as USDC does; additionally, USDC moves faster than many traditional settlement options.
  
  
• The engagement with Mastercard will enhance its crypto card program for cryptocurrency exchanges, making it simpler for partners to convert cryptocurrency to traditional fiat currency.

With businesses and merchants powered by the Mastercard network around the world, the test of this new capability broadens opportunities to enable more crypto companies to offer a card option to allow people to spend their digital assets anywhere Mastercard is accepted.

About Circle

Circle is a global financial technology firm that enables businesses of all sizes to harness the power of digital currencies and public blockchains for payments, commerce and financial applications worldwide. Circle is the principal operator of USD Coin (USDC), which has become the fastest growing, regulated, fully reserved dollar digital currency. USDC in circulation is greater than $25 billion and has supported over $785 billion in on-chain transactions. Today, Circle's transactional services, business accounts, and platform APIs are giving rise to a new generation of financial services and commerce applications that hold the promise of raising global economic prosperity for all through programmable internet commerce. Additionally, Circle operates SeedInvest, one of the largest equity crowdfunding platforms in the U.S., which is a registered broker dealer. Learn more at https://circle.com

SOURCE Circle Internet Financial LLC