Mastercard adds USDC, PYUSD and RLUSD for onchain settlement

Mastercard announced Wednesday it will let card issuers and acquirers settle certain transactions on-chain using regulated stablecoins, offering intraday, weekend and holiday settlement alongside traditional fiat settlement.

The company named Circle’s USDC, Paxos’s PYUSD, Paxos-issued USDG and USDP, Ripple’s RLUSD and SoFi’s SoFiUSD as supported tokens. Mastercard plans to enable those tokens on networks that include Arbitrum, Base, Canton, Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, Tempo and the XRP Ledger where the tokens comply with local rules.

Issuers and acquirers in the United States and Latin America are expected to be among the first to get access. Early participants listed by Mastercard include ARQ (formerly DolarApp), CBW Bank, Cross River, Lead Bank and payments firm Nuvei. Participation will be optional, and partners may continue using existing fiat settlement rails.

On-chain settlement records value transfer and finality on a blockchain ledger instead of relying solely on bank-to-bank messaging and correspondent accounts. For card networks, posting settlement on-chain allows funds to be posted and reconciled outside standard banking hours and can reduce the need to hold intraday liquidity in traditional bank accounts.

In May Mastercard received a New York BitLicense for its U.S. transaction services unit, allowing that unit to conduct regulated digital asset business in New York. Mastercard stated the stablecoin settlement option will operate under the regulated frameworks that apply to the listed tokens.

Other payments and remittance firms have been testing stablecoins for settlement and treasury purposes. Visa reported its stablecoin settlement pilot reached an annualized run rate of about $7 billion after adding multiple blockchains. The broader stablecoin market is valued at roughly $320 billion. MoneyGram launched an MGUSD stablecoin on Stellar for treasury and trading in the United States, and Western Union introduced a dollar-denominated stablecoin on Solana with initial rollouts in selected countries.

Mastercard did not provide a full public timetable for rollout or name every bank and processor that will adopt on-chain settlement. The company added the option will be available where tokens and networks meet applicable compliance and regulatory requirements.