Mastercard Integrates Stablecoins into Global Network

Mastercard has announced its expansion of settlement capabilities with four new features. The first is intraday settlement, which will allow transactions to be settled in real-time. Second is weekend settlement, which means that transactions can now be settled on weekends instead of waiting for the next business day. Third is holiday settlement, allowing for uninterrupted payment processing even during holidays. Fourth and most significant is onchain settlement using regulated stablecoins.

The company will use a range of stablecoins, including USDC from Circle, Paxos' PYUSD, USDG, and USDP, RLUSD from Ripple, and SoFiUSD. These tokens will be activated across multiple networks such as Arbitrum, Base, Canton, Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, Tempo, and XRPL.

The move is expected to increase flexibility for issuers and acquirers in managing their liquidity in the 'always-on' digital economy. This shift away from traditional banking rails will also make it possible for payments to circulate on regulated crypto infrastructures.