mastercard

According to Digital Asset, Mastercard has obtained two U.S. patents aimed at assessing money laundering risks before users conduct cryptocurrency transfers, and completing approvals without disclosing transaction details to the outside world. According to documents released by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Mastercard acquired these two patents on November 3.The first technology analyzes the historical transaction records of the recipient before the transfer and estimates the increase in the user's own risk score after the transaction is completed, helping users decide whether to proceed. The second technology allows transactions to be processed within a private network composed of authorized nodes, with a central system verifying balances and deciding whether to release the transaction, thereby protecting transaction privacy and preventing double spending.

DCS Group's card and payment infrastructure platform DCS DeCard has become a Mastercard issuing institution in Hong Kong. At the same time, DCS DeCard launched the corporate card and expense management solution DeCard Business Account to help companies manage and control their expenditures.The DeCard Business Account supports medium and large enterprises in issuing Mastercard corporate cards through a single platform and centrally managing business expenses. The solution covers employee and operational expenses, assisting companies in managing costs, bills, invoices, and statements, applicable to scenarios such as business travel, employee expenses, advertising, media procurement, and corporate procurement. Initially, corporate cards will be offered in US dollars and funded in US dollars. DCS DeCard plans to gradually expand the DeCard Business Account to other markets and introduce new features, including fund account management.

Bitget has launched MA (Mastercard) stock perpetual contracts. The contracts are settled in USDT, support up to 20 times leverage, and are available for trading 24/7. So far, Bitget supports a total of 395 stock perpetual contract underlying assets.

According to PR Newswire, the global payment and cash management platform Sunrate launched the Sunrate Agentic Card during Hong Kong FinTech Week. This is a programmable multi-currency corporate virtual card aimed at AI Agents, allowing AI Agents to autonomously create virtual cards, initiate payments, and query transaction results within preset authorizations and rules. It has currently obtained Mastercard Agent Pay certification.

Mastercard (MA.N) rose 1.8% in pre-market trading, with third-quarter results exceeding market expectations.

The Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) stated in the frequently asked questions document regarding retail payment regulation conclusions that the removal of surcharges for the designated card networks eftpos, Mastercard, and Visa starting from October 1, 2026, is in the public interest. The RBA will lift the ban on the "no surcharge" rule for the aforementioned networks from that date, with the changes based on Standard No. 3 of 2016 and the revisions to the merchant card payment costs and surcharge standards in 2026. eftpos, Mastercard, and Visa have all decided to implement the no surcharge rule from that date, generally applicable to their credit, debit, and prepaid cards, including cards issued overseas.American Express, UnionPay, and PayPal have also decided to eliminate surcharges, but are currently not formally regulated by the RBA. American Express and UnionPay will withdraw from their existing commitments with the RBA on October 1, 2026, while PayPal's no surcharge rule will take effect on October 5, 2026. This scope is limited to fees charged due to customer card payments and does not include surcharges for weekends, public holidays, booking fees, or service fees. Merchants must comply with the new card organization rules unless exceptions apply; businesses, non-profit organizations, and inter-business card payments do not receive a general exemption.The reforms will be implemented in phases. Starting from October 1, 2026, a lower interchange fee cap will apply to domestic card transactions; from October 30, designated card networks and large acquirers must publish the specified card payment fee information on their websites. From January 30, 2027, large acquirers must disclose how the decrease in interchange fees is passed on to merchant service fees; starting April 1, the interchange fee cap will apply to transactions involving overseas-issued cards acquired in Australia, and acquirers must also provide merchants with more detailed statements. The RBA stated that businesses can still factor the costs of accepting card payments into their overall pricing and may offer discounts for specific payment methods.

According to The Block, payment company Mastercard has launched the Stablecoin Security tool to screen for fraud and sanction risks in stablecoin payments.This tool is aimed at stablecoin payment scenarios, helping relevant institutions identify fraudulent activities and sanction compliance risks during transaction processing. Mastercard did not disclose more product parameters and launch scope in the summary of the report.

Despite the stablecoin circulating supply experiencing almost no growth in the first 9 months before 2026, its payment usage is accelerating. During the same period, stablecoin payments reached $482 billion, a year-on-year increase of 45%; the number of transactions rose to over 1 billion, a year-on-year increase of 71%. On-chain stablecoin card spending reached $3.9 billion, ten times that of the same period last year, with transactions under $50 accounting for 84% of the increase in card transactions.Mastercard, Stripe, and Visa launched services this week to integrate stablecoins into existing payment systems. In the first three quarters, out of $97.9 trillion in original transfers, only 2.5%, or $2.4 trillion, belonged to end-user activities, with $482 billion being the payment amount under this metric; stablecoin card spending in the second quarter accounted for only 0.03% of Visa's $4 trillion payment volume during the same period.

BVNK announced the launch of a global currency platform that connects stablecoins with Mastercard's payment network, enabling stablecoins to facilitate fund transfers through Mastercard's card organization channels.The first planned integration partners for the platform include payment service providers Nuvei and Marqeta. BVNK stated that the platform's local withdrawal coverage is expected to further expand by 2027.

According to Forbes, venture capitalist Alex Lazarow wrote that in the past two years, Stripe, Mastercard, and Circle have acquired American stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge, British BVNK, and Singapore cross-border payment platform Tazapay, respectively, with a total transaction value exceeding $3 billion. These three companies were established between 2020 and 2022, raising a total of approximately $200 million, indicating that stablecoin payment infrastructure is becoming a field where traditional payment giants and cryptocurrency companies are competing to establish a presence.Among them, Stripe announced in 2024 that it would acquire Bridge for slightly over $1 billion; the total value of Mastercard's acquisition of BVNK could reach up to $1.8 billion, including $1.5 billion in base consideration and $300 million in contingent consideration; Circle agreed to acquire Tazapay for $400 million in stock, with the transaction expected to be completed in 2027. The growth in stablecoin adoption, the gradual clarification of regulatory frameworks, and the rising demand for real-time cross-border payments are the main factors driving mergers and acquisitions.Data shows that in 2025, the adjusted transaction volume of stablecoins is expected to grow by 91% year-on-year, reaching $10.9 trillion, close to Visa's $14.2 trillion; the scale of real-world payments is expected to more than double, reaching approximately $390 billion. These transactions reflect that acquirers value not only stablecoin technology but also verified business scale, payment networks, and compliance qualifications.As stablecoin payment infrastructure matures, applications such as dollar accounts, stablecoin payment cards, and cross-border remittances are also emerging, and in the future, more local infrastructure companies similar to Bridge and BVNK may be acquired in various regions around the world.

Privacy infrastructure Hinkal announced on October 9, 2026, its participation in the Mastercard Crypto Partner Program. This program connects crypto and blockchain teams, Mastercard teams, and its global payment network, with members including stablecoin issuers, infrastructure providers, fiat exchange service providers, crypto card supporters, and blockchain and blockchain service providers. Mastercard positions it as a way to transform technological capabilities into compliant use cases for global commerce; some members can also access financial institutions within the card issuing and acquiring networks and receive regulatory and compliance support aligned with global standards.Related use cases include cross-border payments and remittances, B2B transactions, fund and settlement flows, stablecoin payments, and card projects that allow users to spend digital assets at regular merchants. Hinkal can provide embeddable privacy capabilities for wallets, payment platforms, and chains, allowing stablecoins to settle in private balances and transfer using zero-knowledge proofs, ensuring that the amount, sender, or receiver is not disclosed during on-chain transfer verification. This capability is already live on Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, TRON, and other major EVM chains, accessible via SDK and API.Existing integrations include Private Send in Polygon Wallet, Hinkal Private Send in the Tether wallet development kit, Turnkey wallets that can enhance privacy features through Hinkal SDK, and Avvio running Hinkal private payments on its own interface.

ChainCatcher live report, at the OKX NOW conference roundtable "Next Generation Financial System: Who Will Build It?", Mastercard's Executive Vice President of Blockchain and Digital Assets Raj Dhamodharan looked ahead to the payment landscape ten years from now: the underlying rails will change, new technologies such as stablecoins will be applied more behind the scenes, but the simplicity and trust of user experience will not change. He pointed out that stablecoins' "almost zero-cost transfers" are just the surface; cross-border payments still require a multi-layered combination of local liquidity and compliance systems, "payment rails are just one of the raw materials."Also present, OKX Global Managing Partner and CMO Haider Rafique revealed two sets of industry data: the global stablecoin market size is approximately $250 billion, and there are over 700 million crypto users; he also confirmed that the OKX Card exclusively uses the Mastercard network in markets such as Europe, and both parties are exploring cooperation in payment and AI-driven e-commerce.

According to The Defiant, BVNK, a stablecoin infrastructure company under Mastercard, announced the addition of the Stellar network as a stablecoin payment channel. This integration has officially launched in over 130 markets, and more Stellar native assets will be supported in the future.BVNK is a stablecoin infrastructure company that was acquired by Mastercard for up to $1.8 billion.

According to The Block, SoFi has begun using SoFiUSD to settle debit and credit card transactions on the Mastercard network and plans to migrate the entire card program to blockchain settlement, with an expected annual processing volume exceeding $25 billion.SoFi claims to be the first bank to launch stablecoin settlement on the Mastercard network.

According to CNBC, Ant International has launched a collaboration with Visa and Mastercard to establish a "Know Your Agent" (KYA) interoperability framework, which will set universal standards for AI agent identity recognition, verification, and transaction monitoring, allowing agents verified on one network to be used across ecosystems.McKinsey estimates that by 2030, AI agents could participate in $30 trillion to $50 trillion in global consumer transactions.

Mastercard recently released the report "A Short History of the Future of Shopping and Payments," predicting that by 2030, approximately 300 million shoppers worldwide will regularly use AI agents, primarily concentrated in the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, China, and South Korea. The report is based on a survey conducted from June to July 2026 involving 13 markets and 13,000 pairs of parents and teenagers (a total of 26,000 respondents).The survey shows that 65% of British teenagers believe AI will change the shopping habits of their generation, and the likelihood of teenagers globally using AI for shopping is about twice that of their parents. 22% of British teenagers expect shopping to be dominated by AI within five years, compared to only 11% in France. 79% of teenagers and 70% of parents have used AI to research products in the past year, while 51% of teenagers and 46% of parents have used AI to complete a purchase at least once.The report cites Gartner's prediction that by 2028, the majority of B2B procurement will be mediated by AI agents, driving over $15 trillion in spending; by 2030, 20% of monetary transactions will be programmable. The report also suggests that "Know Your Agent" (KYA) could become a compliance advantage, with payment intent, consent, and machine-readable warranties forming the infrastructure of agent-based commerce.

According to official news, BNB Chain announced its participation in the Mastercard Crypto Partner Program, collaborating with the Mastercard ecosystem to promote the application of digital assets in global payments and everyday business scenarios.

According to Cointelegraph, ARK Invest founder Cathie Wood stated that analysts focused on Visa and Mastercard fail to understand the disruption brought by Circle, even though Circle has risen 84% since its IPO.