On June 24, 2025, Mastercard issued a press release announcing a new partnership with Chainlink. As part of the collaboration, the two parties aim to enable over 3 billion Mastercard cardholders to buy crypto with the company in one click.
This isn’t Mastercard’s first attempt to dive into the crypto industry. Its main competitor, Visa, is also keeping pace. The Quickex editorial team looked into how the “dinosaurs” of the payment industry are fighting for their place under the crypto sun.
What Mastercard and Chainlink Are Offering
The Chainlink integration with the company allows cardholders to pay for cryptocurrency purchases in the Chainlink-powered Swapper Finance app. The Mastercard crypto payments are instantly processed through the Shift4 Payments platform, just like a regular online transaction. This user-friendly approach means anyone can buy crypto with Mastercard in one click.
The fiat received is transferred to zerohash. This platform:
- provides blockchain services and liquidity;
- ensures compliance, asset custody, and transaction infrastructure;
- converts fiat to crypto via smart contract.
Swapper Finance includes XSwap, a decentralized exchange within the Chainlink ecosystem. XSwap pulls liquidity from the Uniswap protocol and completes the final swap using Chainlink onchain trading, after which the crypto is delivered to the user.
Thus, the Mastercard and Chainlink partnership gives over 3 billion cardholders access to DeFi. The user receives crypto directly without complex intermediate steps, thanks to the seamless Mastercard crypto payments launch.
This collaboration may also boost interest in the project’s native token. Buy LINK on Quickex.
Other Mastercard Cryptocurrency Initiatives
| Year | Initiative |
|---|---|
| 2020 | CBDC Testing Platform — a virtual sandbox for central banks to simulate issuance and exchange of digital currencies and test compatibility with Mastercard tools. |
| 2021 | Start Path Crypto — a blockchain startup accelerator without equity involvement from Mastercard. |
| Acquisition of CipherTrace — a transaction analytics service to boost compliance and AML capabilities. | |
| Partnership with Bakkt — “Crypto-as-a-Service” to allow banks and merchants to integrate crypto storage and loyalty programs. | |
| Sand Dollar Card — the world’s first card linked to a retail CBDC (Bahamas). | |
| 2022 | Mastercard × Coinbase Partnership — pay for NFTs on Coinbase with a bank card without needing to hold crypto. |
| Collaboration with Paxos — crypto trading and custody under a bank’s brand with infrastructure from Mastercard and Paxos. | |
| Binance Card (Argentina) — a prepaid card enabling crypto payments at over 90 million Mastercard-accepting merchants. | |
| Mastercard Crypto Credential — standards and infrastructure for wallet verification and metadata exchange in blockchain transactions. | |
| 2023 | Multi Token Network (MTN) — a decentralized “network layer” for secure and scalable token operations. |
| CBDC Partner Programme — includes Ripple, Consensys, Fireblocks, and others to co-develop CBDC solutions. | |
| Crypto Credential goes live — first P2P transfers between Latin America and Europe. | |
| 2024 | Launch of MetaMask Crypto Card in Europe — pay directly from your wallet, powered by Baanx. |
| 2025 | Stablecoin Payments — launched via partnerships with Circle, Paxos, and Nuvei, enabling 150 million merchants to accept stablecoins. This reflects Mastercard’s continued innovation in the Mastercard cryptocurrency space. |
Visa Keeps Up
Mastercard’s main competitor, Visa, is also actively developing crypto initiatives:
| Year | Initiative |
|---|---|
| 2020 | Visa × BlockFi Bitcoin Credit Card with 1.5% cashback in BTC. |
| 2021 | First USDC Settlement (Visa × Crypto.com). |
| Global Crypto Advisory Practice — consulting for banks and merchants on crypto strategy. | |
| 2023 | USDC Settlement Expansion via Worldpay and Nuvei, with some operations moving to Solana. |
| 2024 | Launch of Visa Payment Tools with PayPal and Venmo. |
| 2025 | Bridge Partnership — stablecoin Visa cards with USDC/USDT for everyday spending in Latin America. |
| Stablecoin Settlement Network in CEMEA — pilot with fintech Yellow Card. | |
| Digital HKD Pilot — developed with Chainlink. |
Conclusion
Visa and Mastercard’s growing interest in crypto reflects their effort to preserve and adapt their business to new realities. Formerly focused only on fiat, these payment giants now recognize that digital assets are the future of finance. And the numbers back this up: in 2024, trading volumes surpassed those of Visa and Mastercard combined.
In such conditions, both Visa and Mastercard eagerly collaborate with crypto projects and continue to offer more and more cryptocurrency products.
Earlier, the Quickex editorial team reported how the war between Iran and Israel has strengthened Bitcoin.