Global payment giant Mastercard is actively expanding its presence in the crypto sector by teaming up with several crypto firms to deliver cryptocurrency payment card programs. Raj Dhamodharan, the head of Mastercard's crypto and blockchain, has announced recently that the company "has dozens of partners around the world who offer crypto card programs, and they continue to expand".

The news come at a time when the crypto space is brought under close monitoring from financial regulators as banks become more wary towards cryptocurrency businesses. After witnessing several major cryptocurrency failures over the course of last year, notably the collapse of crypto exchange FTX, banks are taking a more cautious approach.

Mastercard has cooperated with numerous crypto exchanges including Binance, Nexo, Gemini, and recently Bakkt, to offer users cryptocurrency-linked payment cards across select nations. Notably, Binance and Mastercard announced the launch of prepaid cards in Latin American countries last year with Colombia being their third nation in the region to support the product. Binance Card holders have the opportunity to transact with a wide range of currencies such as BNB, BUSD, USDT, BTC, ETH, SANTOS, ADA, DOT, SOL, SHIB, XRP, MATIC, and LINK.

Proactively attempting to provide added convenience for its financial institution clients, Mastercard has launched several programs to help them offer crypto-related services. The most recent of such initiatives teaming up with Coinbase for the development of non-fungible tokens (NFTs). As the competition in the payment themes market is gathering speed, the surge of partnerships are allowing Mastercard to gain greater traction, both domestically and internationally.



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