American multinational payment card service company Mastercard tokenized nearly one-third of its transactions in 2024.
Background
- A recent filing with the US SEC highlighted that the firm was able to inch closer to its goal of “innovating the payments ecosystem”
- Alongside tokenizing transactions, it also created blockchain-based business model solutions and simplified access to crypto and other digital assets
Why should you pay attention?
- In the filing, Mastercard highlighted that stablecoins and floating crypto assets “may become more popular” as they become more regulated
- This is because they provide immediacy, 24/7 accessibility, immutability, and efficiency
- Community members seem to be on the same page and have been acknowledging the power of stablecoins of late
- Mastercard also believes that digital currencies and emerging players have the ability to “disrupt” traditional financial markets
- The increased prominence of digital currencies creates an opportunity for Mastercard, but it could equally compete with its own parallel suite of products and services
Who said what?
- With respect to tokenization, the filing noted,
“Approximately 30% of all Mastercard transactions are now tokenized”
- Chalking out future plans with respect to crypto and other digital assets, the filing underlined,
“Through a principled approach, we are focused on supporting blockchain ecosystems and digital currencies”
- The team added,
“We integrate with financial institutions using the Mastercard Multi-Token Network to enable programmable payments, which helps make transactions within blockchain ecosystems more secure, scalable, and interoperable. We work with a wide range of crypto players to enable consumers to buy cryptocurrencies on card and spend those balances anywhere our brands are accepted”
Zooming out
- The payments firm registered $28.2 billion in net revenue in 2024
- This represents a 12% increase from the previous year
- In other related stat updates, stablecoin transaction volume recently flipped that of Visa and Mastercard combined
- A post by Mento Labs highlighted that the figures revolve around $22.5 trillion and $23.8 trillion respectively
