Mastercard partnered with Australian stablecoin network Stables to allow retail consumers in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region to spend their stablecoins at any merchant accepting Mastercard payments.
Stables has created a stablecoin-only wallet that includes a Mastercard-accepted payment card, allowing users to save and spend USD Coin (USDC).
The wallet will accept a variety of stablecoins, including Tether (USDT) and Binance USD (BUSD), as deposits. All deposits will be automatically and converted into USDC at no cost.
The integration is anticipated to go live in the June quarter, beginning in Australia before spreading to Europe, the United States, the United Kingdom, and the majority of Asia Pacific.
The new stablecoin-only wallet and payment card released in conjunction with Mastercard serves to address the need for “simple and accessible means” to real-world use of digital assets, said Stables co-founder and CEO Erez Rachamim.
This project is in line with the increased interest among digital asset holders in using a debit card to spend cryptocurrencies like dollars, as revealed in a Marqeta global poll, in which 82% of respondents indicated interest in such a solution.
According to the survey, 55% of clients in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) area are more confident about investing in digital assets backed by trustworthy organisations.
Mastercard vice president head of Fintech for Australasia Kallan Hogan noted that the business sought to allow “cardholders the freedom to spend their assets where, how, and when they want”.
In a similar initiative last month, Mastercard teamed with New Zealand-based Web3 firm Immersve to create the ‘Metaverse Mastercard’.
Users can utilise USDC cryptocurrency directly from their Web3 wallet to make digital, physical, and metaverse transactions everywhere Mastercard is accepted with this DeFi payments card.
