Mastercard to settle transactions with six compliant stablecoins (officially announced on 2026.6.3)
I. List of 6 approved settlement stablecoins
1. USDC (Circle): Top compliance stablecoin globally
2. PYUSD (Paxos/PayPal): PayPal's issued compliant stablecoin
3. USDP (Paxos): Pax's veteran regulatory stablecoin
4. USDG (Paxos): Global Dollar compliant currency
5. RLUSD (Ripple): Ripple's compliant USD stablecoin (XRPL ecosystem)
6. SoFiUSD (SoFi): Stablecoin issued by a licensed financial institution in the US
II. Supports 8 major underlying blockchains
Ethereum, Polygon, Base, Arbitrum, Solana, XRPL Ripple chain, Canton, Tempo—complete multi-chain settlement options available.
III. Core Business Rules
1. Settlement Model: Parallel and non-replacement with fiat, card-issuing/acquiring institutions have the autonomy to choose whether to settle card transactions in fiat or stablecoins;
2. Core Advantages: Breaking the traditional banking hours limit, providing real-time settlement 24/7, including holidays, solving issues of fund freeze in cross-border, night, and weekend trades, and shortening merchant settlement periods;
3. Focus Regions: Prioritize launch in the US and Latin America, with initial partnerships including Cross River, CBW Bank, Nuvei, ARQ, Lead Bank, and a gradual global expansion throughout 2026;
4. Compliance Credentials: Mastercard's US subsidiary MTS US holds a New York DFS crypto BitLicense, and all 6 stablecoins are issued under state financial regulation in the US.
IV. Industry Impact
1. Traditional payment giants officially incorporate stablecoins into core settlement infrastructure, transitioning from pilot to standardized operations;
2. Positive for USDC, Paxos lineup, XRP (RLUSD), stablecoins extending from on-chain crypto trades to the trillion-dollar offline card settlement market;
3. Forcing Visa to follow suit with stablecoin implementation, accelerating the on-chain process of the global payment system.
Risk Warning: Stablecoins and crypto assets are heavily influenced by regulatory changes in various countries, and there is uncertainty in investments.