Mastercard’s focus on crypto and digital currencies appears to have risen to greater heights given the company’s recent move.
The global payments giant has reached an agreement to acquire CipherTrace, a blockchain intelligence firm with crypto forensics capabilities for over 900 cryptocurrencies. As part of the acquisition, Mastercard plans to integrate CipherTrace’s operations to its own cyber security solutions for digital assets.
Mastercard will combine its cyber capabilities with CipherTrace technology to differentiate its card and real-time payments architecture. Mastercard’s cyber and intelligence chief Ajay Bhalla remarked that the growth of the crypto market has necessitated the need for trusted and safe operations.
The company’s CEO stated that Mastercard needed to establish a significant presence in the crypto space. At the time, the payments giant revealed plans to become the de-facto testing partner for stablecoin and central bank digital currency projects.In May, the company published a survey stating that 40% of people intend to adopt crypto for payments in 2022.