Mastercard and Bakkt Partner to Offer Innovative Crypto Solutions

Global financial services corporation Mastercard announces partnership with cryptocurrency firm Bakkt. The announcement came earlier today by the company. The partnership was reached in a bid to provide crypto services to merchants and various banks across its robust payments network.

The company reveals that Banks already on its global payments network will now be able to provide cryptocurrency rewards on credit and debit cards to their customers. Mastercard is also enabling its various partners within its network, like in the airline or hotel industries the ability to offer loyal points as rewards in cryptocurrency and other digital assets. This means that consumers can receive and spend rewards in cryptocurrency instead of traditional loyalty points and seamlessly convert their crypto holdings to pay for purchases. This is the latest move by global financial giant Mastercard in bringing innovative loyalty options to consumers that align with their passion points. Consumers holding digital assets through custodial wallets on Bakkt’s platform will as well be able to convert their crypto holdings to pay for purchases.

Bakkt is a recognized and reliable digital asset platform that provides the buying, selling, storing, and spending of digital assets to a wide range of its customers. Through the Bakkt app, customers can access its value-adding services, Bakkt payments, and digital assets. Mastercard is a global payments company whose services are powered by diverse technologies. Mastercard is on a mission to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart, and accessible. 

Earlier in the year, Mastercard announced that cardholders will be able to conduct transactions on specific cryptocurrencies on its network. The company also announced in July that as part of the effort to make cryptocurrencies more widely used and transactions seamless for consumers, it was working with various crypto and digital asset startups to achieve that.

The new deal with cryptocurrency firm Bakkt began publicly trading on the New York Stock Exchange on October 18^th has been reported to significantly expand the adoption of cryptocurrencies. The company discloses that it has about 2.8 billion active Mastercards with about 22,000 banks and financial institutions currently on its network. Access to cryptocurrencies will be easier with partnerships like this.

Sherri Haymond, Mastercard’s Executive Vice President of Digital Partnerships in a statement said that “Mastercard is committed to offering a wide range of payment solutions that deliver more choice, value and impact every day.” He added that “Together with Bakkt and grounded by our principled approach to innovation, we’ll not only empower our partners to offer a dynamic mix of digital assets options but also deliver differentiated and relevant consumer experiences.”

This isn’t the first of big deals such as this. Recall we recently reported that Interswitch, one of Africa’s leading technology-driven companies focused on payments partnered with Interstellar, an enterprise Blockchain infrastructure services company to provide blockchain-powered infrastructure solutions across the African continent. In recent times, the adoption of Cryptocurrency has continued to be the focus, and partnerships like this can only guarantee that cryptocurrency will continue to grow rapidly across the world.