Key takeaways:
- Mastercard’s acquisition of CypherTrace shows the payment’s company commitment to crypto
- CipherTrace analyzes blockchain data to find evidence of fraud, money laundering, and other suspicious activites
- Numerous tech companies and financial institutions have recently announced crypto products and services
Mastercard, an international financial services company, is looking to improve its repertoire of products and services in order to expand its presence in the cryptocurrency ecosystem. The company hopes that the acquisition of CipherTrace, a cryptocurrency intelligence company that aims to bring together crypto and traditional financial services, will help in its mission to bring greater transparency and security to the industry.
Mastercard is betting on the success of crypto
Mastercard, one of the largest payment companies in the world is evidently hedging its bets and embracing crypto as one of the cornerstones of the company’s long-term vision. The increasing popularity of digital currencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) is changing the way many people and companies invest their funds and move value in the increasingly digital world.
Mastercard believes that guaranteeing trust and security are vital components that will help the industry to flourish and the community to grow. Earlier this year, Mastercard announced that it will start supporting digital assets directly on its network. In recent months, the company has partnered with prominent crypto businesses, such as Gemini, Uphold and BitPay, which points to the fact that Mastercard is very serious about its future in the crypto sector.
Ajay Bhalla, president of cyber and intelligence division at Mastercard acknowledges the staying power and potential of crypto assets:
“Digital assets have the potential to reimagine commerce, from everyday acts like paying and getting paid to transforming economies, making them more inclusive and efficient. With the rapid growth of the digital asset ecosystem comes the need to ensure it is trusted and safe. Our aim is to build upon the complementary capabilities of Mastercard and CipherTrace to do just this.”
Cybersecurity startup CipherTrace offers fraud protection and anti-money laundering solutions
CipherTrace is a crypto analytics firm that specializes in tracing transactions made on the public ledger in order to find potentially criminal activities, particularly evidence of money laundering and fraud. The cybersecurity startup’s expertise will help ensure that the customers, merchants, and businesses feel safe when making crypto payments and transactions on Mastercard’s payment network
Dave Jevans, CEO of CipherTrace:
“We help companies – whether they are banks or cryptocurrency exchanges, government regulators or law enforcement to keep the crypto economy safe.”
Mastercard joins the growing list of multinational behemoths that have recently made the jump to crypto in some way or another. For instance, we’ve talked about investment giants JPMorgan and Wells Fargo’s new crypto exposure investment services. In August, Square’s Cash app stated that it considers Bitcoin to be of the main drivers behind the payment platform’s growth. Facebook and Twitter have also made their plans clear as both tech giants recently announced deep integration of digital currencies with their existing products.
The exact details of the agreement between Mastercard and CipherTrace have not been disclosed.
