In the last couple of years American multinational financial services giant; MasterCard, has continued to position itself as one of the cryptocurrency focused companies in the world, with a number of its top staff also being active advocates for the sector.
Now, the company has launched a new product it calls ‘Crypto Secure’ which will among other things, ensure that it helps banks in curbing the cases of fraud that are sometimes associated with digital assets.
Mastercard has with this new product launch strengthened its efforts in the cryptocurrency industry, and also reduce frauds and scam cases that affect the traditional banking system when aligned with the cryptocurrency world.
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The President of Cyber and Intelligence Business at Mastercard; Ajay Bhalla stated that the new product would indeed be called “Crypto Secure.”
Crypto Secure will make use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms so as to accurately uncover any criminal or fraudulent activity. This makes it quite suitable for the banking sector.
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For the new product; Crypto Secure, Mastercard opted to partner with CipherTrace for the infrastructure required to introduce the service into markets.
CipherTrace is a blockchain startup that makes it possible for cryptocurrency exchanges, banks, wallets, cryptocurrency Automated Teller Machines (ATMs) and other Virtual Asset Service Providers (VASPs) to process cryptocurrency and digital asset transactions safely. CipherTrace also aids in while protecting against fraud, reducing risks and being compliant with regulations put in place all over the world.
According to Mastercard’s President of Cyber and Intelligence Business; Ajay Bhalla, “The idea is that the kind of trust we provide for digital commerce transactions, we want to be able to provide the same kind of trust to digital asset transactions for consumers, banks, and merchants.”
The Mastercard top executive also spoke about the current situation in the market. He stated that despite the negative trend, he still maintains a bullish stance. Ajay Bhalla made it known that the cycles “come and go” adding that the occurrence of the next bull run is only a matter of time.
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In his words, “I think you’ve got to take the longer view that this is a big marketplace now and evolving and is probably going to be much, much bigger in the future.”
Scams in the cryptocurrency space have continued to be major source of worry for investors and observers alike even with the downward turn in the market. According to a study carried out by American blockchain analysis company Chainalysis, it is estimated that from January 2022 to August 2022 hackers stole about 1.4 billion United States Dollars (which is around 169 billion Kenyan Shillings). Two of the hack cases that made the most headlines this year were the 615 million United States Dollars (which is around 75 billion Kenyan Shillings) attack on Axie Infinity’s Ronin Bridge and the Harmony Bridge hack where the hackers made away with 100 million United States Dollars which is around 12.05 billion Kenyan Shillings.
Mastercard has also been involved in other cryptocurrency ventures in recent times. Not long after this year began, the multinational financial services giant sealed a deal with publicly traded cryptocurrency exchange platform; Coinbase. The partnership was aimed at encouraging the advancement and continued use of Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs).
Soon after Mastercard employed more than 500 employees charged with the sole aim of advancing its cryptocurrency enterprises.
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In April this year, the company entered into a partnership with Nexo. Nexo is an all-in-one crypto platform that allows users to earn interests, purchase assets, borrow against said assets, or swap between 300+ pairs on the platform.
The partnership between both establishments resulted in the launch of the very first cryptocurrency card in Europe. The card made it possible for its users to spend without selling any of their assets by borrowing against said cryptocurrency assets.
Mastercard has also sealed a deal with the largest cryptocurrency exchange in the world in terms of daily trading volume of cryptocurrencies; Binance. The partnership led to the launch of a prepaid cryptocurrency card in South American country; Argentina. The prepaid card makes it possible for users in the country to pay their bills and make purchases in all stores and locations in Argentina, that accept Mastercard.
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The aggressive expansion moves by Mastercard into the cryptocurrency side of things is definitely something to watch out for. Especially in the grand scheme of things as it is expected that more and more investors will get into the space in the coming years.
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