Mastercard launches stablecoin settlement option for card payments

Mastercard announced that it will expand its settlement infrastructure to let issuers and acquirers settle card transactions with regulated stablecoins. The new service will support intraday, weekend and holiday settlement and will operate on multiple blockchains, including Arbitrum, Base, Canton, Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, Tempo and XRPL. Supported tokens include Circle’s USDC, Paxos‑issued PYUSD, USDG, USDP, Ripple’s RLUSD and SoFi’s SoFiUSD, giving partners greater flexibility in liquidity and timing.

The move follows a broader push by major payment networks—Stripe, Visa and others—into stablecoin platforms, reflecting the $320 billion‑sized market’s growing relevance to mainstream finance. Mastercard expects early adoption by firms such as ARQ, CBW Bank, Cross River, Lead Bank and Nuvei in the United States and Latin America.