As cryptocurrencies continue to become more mainstream, major payment providers such as Visa and Mastercard are facilitating the growth and expansion of the cryptocurrency economy through various collaborations and initiatives. Just recently, Visa launched a new tokenized platform while Mastercard announced the development of its cryptocurrency payment cards in partnership with leading cryptocurrency exchanges, such as Binance, Nexo, and Gemini.

The payment-processing network also announced the launch of its Mastercard Crypto Credential in collaboration with Lirium, Bit2Me, Mercado Bitcoin, and Uphold. The new development is aimed at providing a standard and infrastructure for verifying interactions between consumers and businesses on blockchain networks. Initially, the pilot program will be tested in Latin America, the Caribbean, and the United States for achieving transfers between corridors. Beyond this, Mastercard is also collaborating with public blockchain networks, such as Aptos Labs, Ava Labs, Polygon, and Solana to implement this Mastercard initiative across different ecosystems.

Meanwhile, Visa has joined forces with blockchain companies and tech giants, such as AgroToken, Microsoft, and Sinqia, to develop a programmatic financial platform. The platform will be especially tailored for farmers and small-to-medium businesses by tokenizing existing financial contracts into tradable NFTs on the Ethereum blockchain. Moreover, Visa has developed the Universal Payment Channel (UPC) for connecting Central Bank Digital Currencies and other forms of digital money for secure cross-currency transactions.

The recent progress being made by Visa and Mastercard are driving the mainstream adoption of cryptocurrency. Banks and auditors, who had become wary of interacting with the crypto space, are fortunately being forced to change their opinion. This kind of crypto adoption reduces the impact of the issues that had occurred throughout the year 2022. Ultimately, these developments by Visa and Mastercard open exciting avenues for cryptocurrency usage for a diversity of users.



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