MasterCard has expanded its participation in the cryptocurrency infrastructure by establishing a new partnership with Moonpay, introducing payment cards that allow users to trade using StableCoins.
The infrastructure will be provided by Iron, the Stablecoin payments company acquired by Moonpay in March, and is expected to be launched later this year, although a specific timetable or country has not been confirmed yet.
The service is intended to be available to individuals and businesses and will automatically convert Stablecoins to Fiat at the point of sale.
Source: MoonpayWhat expectations can we get from our Stablecoin payment card?
The new card service will allow users to make purchases and receive payments at the price of Stablecoins, while transactions are automatically converted to fiat currency. This approach is designed to allow merchants and cardholders to interact with Stablecoins without having to deal with the complexity of managing crypto wallets or directly handling market volatility.
Iron is the infrastructure provider now owned by MoonPay, which will handle the service’s technical backend. Although specific stablecoins to be supported have not been disclosed yet, such products usually use well-known assets such as USDC or USDT, both of which are pegged to the US dollar.
The launch program is global, although neither company details which regions will be prioritized.
Ongoing regulatory developments
In the U.S., the SEC issued guidelines in April stating that certain Stablecoins are not eligible for securities. However, it does not clearly illustrate the load-bearing or the stabilizer of the algorithm, but rather leaves part of the market in a legal gray area.
The SEC also recently closed an investigation into Paypal’s stable stake without enforcement action, suggesting a possible shift to clearer regulatory boundaries. Even so, many countries are still developing stable Stablecoins (especially the legal framework used in financial products or payment systems).
Despite this, large payment networks continue to experiment. Visa recently launched a Stablecoin pilot program in six Latin American countries and plans to expand to other continents. Mastercard’s own series of partnerships, including its latest partnership with Moonpay, suggests that the company sees Stablecoins as a viable component of future payment infrastructure.
