This offering is enabled by a new collaboration that integrates Marqeta’s card issuing platform with Coinbase’s infrastructure, according to the release.
Together, they will provide a payment card solution that enables users to use their stablecoin balances for every spending at merchants that accept cards, the release said.
Coinbase will handle custody of stablecoin balances and manage the conversion between digital assets and fiat; Coinbase’s blockchain, Base, will provide the on-chain infrastructure for settlement; and Marqeta will handle card issuance, payment processing, and bank and network relationships, per the release.
Marqeta Chief Strategy Officer Anthony Peculic said in the release: “As we build out the complete stack for stablecoin-backed cards, expanding our relationship with Coinbase was a natural next step. Coinbase brings scale and breadth of infrastructure to provide for the needs of our enterprise customers.”
We’d love to be your preferred source for news.
Please add us to your preferred sources list so our news, data and interviews show up in your feed. Thanks!
Coinbase Head of Infrastructure Products Alec Lovett said in the release: “Our collaboration with Marqeta will combine our stablecoin payment rails with their powerful issuing and processing capabilities to deliver real-time global transactions that meet the needs of modern consumers and businesses.”
This collaboration expands an existing one in which Marqeta works with Coinbase to issue crypto-backed cards, according to the release.
Marqeta CEO Mike Milotich noted the relationship with Coinbase and the crypto-backed cards during an August earnings call while describing Marqeta’s strategy to analysts.
The strategy includes stablecoin-backed cards as well as initiatives around embedded finance, multinational issuing and commercial payments.
“Our strategy here is straightforward,” Milotich told analysts, adding that it is “to make digital dollars spendable through the same trusted card rails our customers and users already utilize on a daily basis.”
Meanwhile, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong told Bloomberg Television in September that stablecoin payments will be a key revenue driver for the cryptocurrency exchange and that Coinbase is already working with banks, FinTechs and other businesses to move more payment activity into stablecoins.
“That’s going to be a very big growth industry,” Armstrong said. “Payment volume can be a very interesting business for us.”
Add as Preferred Source
