In the first half of 2021, Visa customers spent more than $1 billion in cryptocurrency with credit cards that the company offers through partnerships with three different crypto platforms: Circle, BlockFi, and Coinbase. The announcement comes as credit card companies have slowly let go of some of their apprehension about cryptocurrency and looked for ways to cash in on its growing popularity. “As brands and merchants look to appeal to younger consumers and their transaction preferences, these new offerings represent a unique opportunity to satisfy increasing demand for crypto, payment, and rewards flexibility,” Nancy Gordon, Bakkt’s vice president of rewards and payments, said in a statement. More information about when these new capabilities will be available to customers will be shared at a later date, according to Mastercard. Mastercard said this latest expansion will impact more than 20,000 financial institutions, including banks and credit unions, that work with the company. Now, Mastercard’s decision to integrate support for bitcoin throughout its payments network means even more people will not just be exposed to cryptocurrency, but rewarded with it. In September, Mastercard also created its first-ever non-fungible token, or NFT, ( an animated ball signed by soccer coach José Mourinho) as part of a credit card loyalty sweepstakes. Mastercard debit and prepaid cards offered by the platforms Uphold and BitPay allow people to quickly convert their cryptocurrency holdings into traditional currency, while a Mastercard credit card offered by the crypto company Gemini allows customers to earn rewards in cryptocurrency based on their spending activity. There are already several Mastercard credit and debit cards for people who want to use cryptocurrency. This isn’t Mastercard’s first cryptocurrency pursuit. While people who opt to convert or accumulate rewards points in crypto will still be taking a risk because cryptocurrency’s value is mostly determined by the volatile crypto market, Mastercard’s offerings will make taking that risk a little easier and less daunting than having to sign up separately for a crypto platform. This will give the holders of more than 2.8 billion Mastercards in circulation a potential on-ramp into the crypto investment world. At the same time, these Mastercard customers will have the option to convert rewards points they already have into bitcoin and store it in a Bakkt digital wallet.
As part of Mastercard’s agreement with Bakkt, merchants including restaurants and retailers will be able to offer bitcoin as an alternative to the traditional loyalty points that credit cards often offer users. These tools are part of the partnership Mastercard announced on Monday with Bakkt, a platform for buying and selling digital assets like crypto.īanks and financial institutions that offer Mastercard credit and debit cards can now enable customers to pay down their balance and earn loyalty points with bitcoin, the cryptocurrency that the Bakkt platform supports. Now, it’s gone mainstream enough that the more than 50-year-old credit card company Mastercard is offering its customers access to cryptocurrency digital wallets, cryptocurrency-branded debit and credit cards, and even cryptocurrency-based loyalty rewards programs. Cryptocurrency was first created as an alternative to traditional financial institutions.