Mastercard CEO Says Stablecoins Solve Cross-Border Payment Delays

Mastercard

Cross-border payments are proving to be the strongest use case for stablecoins, Mastercard CEO Michael Miebach said Friday (Oct. 9), Bloomberg reported.

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    During an interview with Bloomberg TV, Miebach said stablecoins provide an alternative to traditional methods of cross-border payments that take days and have unclear fees.

    “From a working capital perspective for a company, if you could move the money instantly, it would be so much better,” Miebach said, per the report.

    Miebach highlighted Mastercard’s backing of Open Standard and its recently issued U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin, according to the report.

    Open Standard announced Sept. 30 that the Open USD (OUSD) stablecoin is live and that Mastercard is one of the four integration paths through which businesses can get started with OUSD. The other three are Stripe, Coinbase and Visa.

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    When Open Standard announced June 30 that the stablecoin was set to go live later in the year and that several dozen companies had signed up to use it, the company described OUSD as a “money movement stablecoin.”

    Miebach told Bloomberg TV Friday that Mastercard aims to “create a stablecoin particularly focused on moving money instead of investment purposes.”

    The PYMNTS Intelligence report “From Asset to Everyday Money: Making Digital Currencies Spendable” found that cross-border B2B transfers are already one of the largest use cases for stablecoins and represent the majority of global stablecoin payment volume.

    For cross-border B2B transfers, stablecoins provide a solution for speed, cost and currency exposure. Stablecoins settle in seconds at a fraction of the cost of traditional cross-border wire transfers. In markets where local currencies are depreciating, stablecoins preserve purchasing power, access dollar-denominated liquidity and protect against inflation, according to the report.

    “For issuers with international reach, these two use cases together make B2B cross-border infrastructure one of the clearest near-term growth opportunities,” the report said.

    Mastercard announced in August that it launched a partnership with stablecoin infrastructure network Borderless.xyz to examine how Mastercard Crypto Credential’s standards-based framework can support trusted transactions in cross-border stablecoin payments.

    Also in August, Mastercard announced that it completed its acquisition of cryptocurrency infrastructure platform BVNK. The company said the deal is designed to help Mastercard offer more choice in “how people and businesses exchange value by enabling interoperability across fiat and digital currencies.”