Mastercard has announced plans to expand its settlement capabilities to allow issuers and acquirers to settle certain card transactions using regulated stablecoins.
Mastercard on Wednesday he said up-to-date capabilities will include intraday, weekend and holiday card settlements, supporting both fiat currencies and onchain settlements via regulated stablecoins. The company said the up-to-date options are intended to provide its partners with greater flexibility in managing liquidity and settlement schedules.
The expansion shows stablecoins digging deeper into mainstream financial infrastructure as major payment networks test tokenized dollars for settlement. This follows Mastercard obtaining a Novel York BitLicense in May, allowing its US transaction processing unit to conduct regulated digital assets business in the state.
The stablecoin settlement option will support USDC Circle, PYUSD, USDG and USDP issued by Paxos, RLUSD Ripple and SoFiUSD SoFi. Mastercard said the stablecoins will be available on all supported blockchain networks, including Arbitrum, Base, Canton, Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, Tempo and XRPL.
ARQ, formerly known as DolarApp, CBW Bank, Cross River, Lead Bank and Nuvei, is expected to be among the first to support stablecoin settlement optionality in the United States and Latin America, Mastercard says.
The role of stablecoins in the Mastercard ecosystem. source: Mastercard
Payment companies are deepening stablecoin integration
Mastercard’s stablecoin settlement expansion follows a series of stablecoin moves by major payments and remittance companies.
In April, Visa reported that its stablecoin settlement pilot program achieved an annual run rate of $7 billion, up 50% from the previous quarter, after adding five blockchains to bring the number of settlement networks it supports to nine. The company said the expansion was intended to provide issuers and acquirers with more options for settling with the network as stablecoins move into mainstream payment flows.
The stablecoin market is currently valued at around $320 billion.
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The remittance sector has also delved into stablecoins. MoneyGram on Tuesday launched MGUSD, a dollar stablecoin on the Stellar platform, saying the token will support treasury settlements and currency trading in the United States, ahead of a broader global rollout.
In early May, Western Union also launched its USDPT stablecoin denominated in US dollars on the Solana platform, which will be available in the Philippines and Bolivia at launch, with expansion plans in 2026.
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