Mastercard Launches Crypto Credential Service for Cross-border Transfers

Liputan6.com, Jakarta Mastercard announced the company’s move to launch a crypto credential service for cross-border transfers or crossborder.

In its early stages, Mastercard’s Head of Crypto and Blockchain, Raj Dhamodharan said the Mastercard Crypto Credential allows wallets to be identified in transactions that meet requirements such as Financial Action Task Force (FATF) travel rules.

Launching the Coindesk page, Saturday (29/4/2023), Mastercard Crypto Credential is a common set of standards for authentication of interactions, using technology from CipherTrace, the well-known blockchain analytics platform that Mastercard agreed to acquire in late 2021.

“If two people want to transfer from one country to another, the level of compliance and verification required is very complicated. So how do you identify the wallet. And how do you exchange enough information about the other side?” said Dhamodharan.

Cross-border transactions have been the focus of blockchain tracker CipherTrace, creators of cryptocurrency systems that help companies comply with travel rules.

Under that rule, whenever crypto worth more than USD 1,000 is transacted between two parties, the sending crypto service provider is expected to communicate the sender’s personally identifiable information to the receiving crypto service provider, and vice versa.

To launch the service, Mastercard is working with wallet providers Bit2Me, Lirium, Mercado Bitcoin, and Uphold.

The company is working on initial projects to enable transfers between the US and the Latin America and Caribbean corridors.

Furthermore, Dhamodharan said the company also plans to expand adoption of similar technologies, including services for non-fungible token (NFT) transactions.

To that end, Mastercard is working with public blockchain network organizations Aptos Labs, Ava Labs, Polygon, and the Solana Foundation.