Key Highlights
- Mastercard has announced the launch of the Crypto Partner Program, which creates a group of over 85 crypto-native companies, payment providers, financial institutions, and blockchain-based companies
- This program has witnessed the participation of major companies like Binance, Circle, Ripple, Gemini, PayPal, Paxos, Solana, Polygon, and others
- This collaboration connects experts from different areas, like stablecoins, cross-border transfers, B2B payments, and global fund movement
On March 11, the leading payment network, Mastercard, announced the launch of the Crypto Partner Program. Through this program, the payment giant is bringing more than 85 crypto‑based entities “to create a forum for meaningful dialogue and collaboration as this space continues to mature.”
Digital assets are entering a new phase. What once ran in parallel to existing financial systems is increasingly being applied to solve practical, real-world needs — often behind the scenes – from cross-border remittances to B2B money transfers. This creates new opportunities to… pic.twitter.com/DZ1gjmW8og
— Mastercard (@Mastercard) March 11, 2026
What is Mastercard’s Crypto Partner Program?
According to the official announcement, Mastercard is planning to address practical challenges that create obstacles in the adoption of digital assets, such as cross-border remittances, B2B money transfers, payouts, settlement, and global money movement
This program will make a huge collaboration of crypto-based companies, payment providers, financial institutions, and blockchain-based platforms to connect on-chain innovation with daily traditional commerce.
The program will allow participants to directly connect with Mastercard teams to develop new products. This collaboration between the crypto sector and traditional payment networks will combine the “speed and programmability” of blockchain-based assets with its card networks and merchant acceptance.
“By creating a shared framework for collaboration, the program helps align innovation across the ecosystem while supporting consistent standards and responsible growth. The focus is practical execution: translating technical innovation into scalable, compliant use cases that can operate across markets and integrate seamlessly into everyday commerce,” stated in the announcement.
Mastercard is expanding its collaboration with crypto-based companies, but this is not new. It is already helping crypto startups grow through its Start Path program and helping partners to create crypto debit and credit cards. After witnessing the success of this program, the payment giant is now launching a new program to help these companies work together.
The Crypto Partner Program has already been joined by big names in the crypto industry, including Binance, Circle, Ripple, Gemini, PayPal, Paxos, and infrastructure providers like Modern Treasury. Modern Treasury will join the program as an On/Off-Ramp provider. The program has over 85 members, including crypto exchanges, digital wallet companies, and financial apps. These varieties in the partnership will bring expertise in areas like creating digital tokens, setting up automatic payments, and following compliance.
The launch is coming at a time when the crypto sector is merging with traditional financial platforms, thanks to progress in regulatory developments. The payment giant has acquired comprehensive stablecoin capabilities through partnerships with companies like MetaMask to offer self-custody debit cards in the U.S. Apart from this, it also made a collaboration with OKX for branded card programs, and Circle to facilitate merchant settlements in USDC.
This allows consumers to spend their cryptocurrency at any merchant that accepts Mastercard or withdraw stablecoins directly to their bank accounts. Apart from this, its Crypto Credential service is making peer-to-peer transfers easy by replacing complex blockchain addresses with trusted usernames.
Mastercard’s competitor, Visa, is not staying behind in the race as it is also making an integration. Visa has recently expanded stablecoin-backed cards with Bridge across over 100 countries and is testing tokenized deposits with banks.
After the approval of the GENIUS Act in 2025, Mastercard announced the launch of a program to target the stablecoin sector in the U.S. According to a Citigroup report, the cumulative market capitalization of stablecoins is expected to reach $1.9 trillion by 2030.
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