Mastercard set to offer Bitcoin rewards and purchases

The thousands of banks as well as millions of merchants on the Mastercard payment network are set to integrate cryptocurrency into their products.

With 2.8bn Mastercards in use, according to the company, this latest step towards the everyday use of cryptocurrency has the potential to rock the industry.

Mastercard’s partnership with Bakkt, spun off by Intercontinental Exchange, allows holders to use Bitcoin purchase through the crypto credit and debit cards and receive bitcoin rewards.

Companies with the Mastercard partnership will be able to offer crypto in line with their loyalty program backed by Bakkt as well as hotels and restaurants able to convert points customers may receive for perks for crypto instead.

Sherri Haymond, Mastercard’s executive vice president of digital partnerships, said giving their partners the option to add crypto services is something they’ve wanted to establish.

“We want to offer all of our partners the ability to more easily add crypto services to whatever it is they’re doing,” Haymond said.

“Our partners, be they banks, fintechs, or merchants can offer their customers the ability to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrency through an integration with the Baktt platform.”

EQIFI, a DeFi platform powered by a regulated global bank, launched global crypto Mastercards that will allow users to make real-time payments in-store with their digital assets.

The crypto Mastercard will be available in 44 million locations and can process online and international transactions.