Cryptocurrency firm Bakkt Holdings Inc. has partnered up with MasterCard to bind crypto and card payments.
This new partnership could make it more feasible for banks and similar financial institutions, to offer and accept crypto payments. This means customers soon can apply for cryptocurrency debit cards and crypto credit lines. As of now the cryptocurrency that will dominate this new sector is of course Bitcoin. In the future, although many other cryptocurrencies are expected to be brought into the mix.
After this partnership became official MasterCard shares jumped 1%, while Bakkt shares skyrocketed more than a whopping 80%.
Earlier this year MasterCard stated it was planning on adding cryptocurrencies to its network. According to MasterCard a large percent of the world population are using debit/credit cards to purchase various cryptocurrencies, and using crypto cards to access these assets. This demand was one of the major deciding factors in this partnership.
MasterCard and Visa are the top two card networks in the USA. Normally (in the U.S.) the only currency in circulation on these cards is of course the US Dollar. With cryptocurrency becoming more widely utilized and explored, that means these card networks could eventually bankrupt due to the US Dollar becoming more and more outdated every day. However, incorporating both cryptocurrencies and USD into the MasterCard networks; has the potential to allow these currencies the ability to not only coexist but boost each one's security simultaneously. Crypto then, would be backed by the US Dollar in a sense and the US Dollar would then be backed by Crypto Vice-Versa, making both currencies secure and unlikely to crash.
You may have already seen many other crypto cards offered by crypto platforms. The reason that this partnership brings about a new era is that it allows any bank utilizing the MasterCard network to offer this service as a standardized practice. Currently, only a few platforms offer crypto cards, which are not interchangeable throughout the entire network but rather only the specific issuing bank's network.
