Mastercard Focuses Its ‘Engage’ Program on Crypto

Mastercard has expanded its Engage program, which links potential card issuers with partners that can provide appropriate technical expertise, to help bring cryptocurrency card programs to market, allowing a growing cohort of crypto firms to leverage the credit card giant’s global network, according to a press release.

Mastercard Engage helps cut the time it takes to bring crypto cards to market and creates crypto-to-fiat conversion capabilities, Mastercard said. The system identifies and builds partnerships with companies that issue cards or are BIN [bank identification number] sponsors looking to launch a crypto card.

The initiative by the 57-year-old credit card firm with close to 30,000 staff worldwide is nicely timed with a recent push by traditional finance firms into the digital assets space and adds to its other efforts in the industry. Last month, the company announced a crypto credentials program to carry out anti-money laundering (AML) checks for cross-border transactions, using technology from Mastercard-owned blockchain analytics firm CipherTrace.

“The expanded Mastercard Engage network will help empower players across the digital asset ecosystem and beyond to fulfill their ambitions at scale, paired with the safety and security that comes with the Mastercard brand,” Raj Dhamodharan, executive vice president for blockchain and digital assets, said in a statement.

Mastercard also named a cohort of crypto payments firms joining the Engage program. The list of firms included: Baanx, Credencial Payments, Episode 6, Immersve, Monavate, Moorwand, PayCaddy, Paymentology, Pomelo, Swap, and Unlimit.