Mastercard is making key moves in the digital asset landscape with the launch of a up-to-date global partnership program that includes more than 85 companies across the payments and financial sectors. Names such as Circle, Binance and Ripple are among those joining this initiative, which aims to connect cryptocurrency payments to the Mastercard network.
Mastercard’s up-to-date crypto strategy
In statement On Wednesday, Mastercard outlined the main goal of the program: to scale digital assets and seamlessly integrate them with existing payment platforms.
Positioning itself as a bridge between digital assets and conventional payment systems, Mastercard is enhancing its offering for early-stage crypto companies with services such as card programs, global merchant acceptance and cross-border settlements.
The diverse range of partners for this up-to-date program also includes SoFi Technologies, Worldpay by Global Payments, PayPal, BitGo, Crypto.com, Gemini, Marqeta, Paxos and Shift4, among others.
Mastercard emphasized that companies and institutional operate casessuch as payments, settlements and cross-border transactions are emerging rapidly, opening up opportunities to improve the flow of money on a global scale.
This initiative follows a collaboration announced last November, in which Ripple, Gemini and WebBank worked with Mastercard to explore the possibility of settling Gemini credit card transactions using Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin on the platform XRP Ledger (XRPL).
Ripple License Pushing; Binance fights against WSJ
In addition to Mastercard’s expansion, Ripple has also done this revealed plans to obtain an Australian Financial Services License (AFSL) on Wednesday.
This license will enable Ripple to expand its payments offering in Australia, serving financial institutions, fintechs and enterprises that require productive ways to transfer value internationally while adhering to regulatory standards.
Ripple intends to acquire AFSL through the proposed acquisition of BC Payments Australia Pty Ltd, which is currently undergoing the necessary finalization processes.
Once implemented, AFSL will enhance Ripple’s ability to provide an end-to-end platform for global fund transfers, managing everything from compliance and funding to currency and liquidity management.
On a different note, the Binance cryptocurrency exchange filed complaint against The Wall Street Journal for publishing a misleading and defamatory article on February 23, 2026
Binance’s global director of litigation, Dugan Bliss, said the company believes this lawsuit is necessary to defend against misinformation that has led to reputational damage and harmful business impacts. Bliss added:
This type of reporting undermines trust in the broader industry and undermines the efforts of those committed to protecting users and supporting positive innovation.
At the time of writing XRP was trading at $1.38, representing a significant 3% loss in 24 hours. This was the largest decline among the top ten cryptocurrencies by market capitalization, only surpassed by Dogecoin’s (DOGE) 7% decline over the same period.
Featured image from OpenArt, chart from TradingView.com
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