Mastercard CEO: ‘Long Way to Go Before Crypto Becomes Mainstream’

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Mastercard CEO: ‘Long Way to Go Before Crypto Becomes Mainstream’​

Michael Miebach. Source: a video screenshot, Yahoo Finance / YouTube

The CEO of the payments giant Mastercard Michael Miebach argued that several elements need to come together before bitcoin (BTC) and crypto in general can go mainstream.

In an interview with Yahoo Finance, the CEO was asked if the day will come when everybody will be paying in bitcoin, and Miebach agreed that that could very well happen.

He said,

“Entirely possible, but I think it’s a long way to go before crypto becomes mainstream.”

There are some obstacles in the way of crypto going mainstream, including regulations, as well as simplicity and ease of usage.

The CEO stated that “I think this question on regulatory compliance, on scalable technology, on making sure it’s a predictable user experience – why is buying an NFT such a clunky experience? It shouldn’t be.”

Miebach argued that,

“I think these things all need to click in and then you have the building blocks for it to become mainstream.”

This is “most likely not” going to happen in the next six months, he said, but the CEO added that he is optimistic about the asset class nonetheless.

As to what Mastercard’s role will be in the future of crypto, the CEO said that there are users who want to use crypto and that the company aims to provide that.

Mastercard wants to make payments in crypto as easy and safe as any other payment – for users to be able to buy crypto and pay with it using the card, but also to be able to reverse a payment, he said, and added:

“That’s how we’ve been engaging a whole set of partnerships with crypto exchanges.”

Furthermore, Miebach said that the company has “a whole set of services” that they deploy in regard to regulations and regulatory compliance.

“So exchanges, banks, and everybody else who wants to play in the space, in the end, they all have needs that are pretty common on the safety, so we fulfill those,” said Miebach.

He also briefly touched on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and the company’s role in that field, mentioning its partnership with the government of the Bahamas on the Sand Dollar. This, he said, is “yet another angle of the crypto economy where we advise and work with governments and we provide testing facilities,” he said and concluded that,

“We covered a whole spectrum of the crypto economy really.”

Mastercard's relationship with crypto is long. As for the most recent announcements, as reported, just days ago, Mastercard launched Start Path Crypto – a global engagement program to help blockchain, crypto, and digital asset startups scale, it said.

In late October, crypto platform BitOasis and Mastercard partnered to launch a series of crypto card programs in the Middle East & North Africa (MENA) region.

Also in October, Mastercard introduced its Crypto Source in partnership with the blockchain infrastructure platform Paxos Trust Company.

You can watch the full interview here:

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Learn more:

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- Nexo Launches New Mastercard for Users to Spend Without Selling Crypto