Bitcoin’s big moment: Mastercard jumps in search

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The company announced late Wednesday that it will support “selecting cryptocurrencies” directly on its network at some point later this year.

“Our philosophy on cryptocurrencies is simple: it’s about choice,” Raj Dhamodharan, executive vice president of Mastercard, wrote in a post late Wednesday. “Mastercard is not here to recommend that you start using cryptocurrencies. But we are here to allow customers, merchants and companies to move digital value – traditional or cryptographic – however they want.”

Although Mastercard did not have details on how customers will be able to use bitcoin, the company said it will work like this: When someone wants to buy an item with cryptocurrency, crypto-Mastercard partners will convert digital currency into traditional currency and then transmit through the Mastercard network.

This change “will allow many more merchants to accept crypto,” as well as “eliminate inefficiencies, allowing both consumers and merchants to avoid switching back and forth between crypto and traditional shopping,” Mastercard said.

It is a major milestone for bitcoin, which has slowly entered Corporate America after years of skepticism.
On Monday, bitcoin rose to a record high of more than $ 44,800 since then adze (TSLA) he said he would soon accept bitcoin as payment for his vehicles and revealed that he bought $ 1.5 billion bitcoin as part of his cash holdings. Digital payment giants Square (ff) and PayPal (PYPL) recently began allowing users to trade bitcoin.

But Mastercard will be Bitcoin’s most popular major platform so far.

Wednesday’s news fueled the recent rally in bitcoin (XBT), sending it 3% to trading early Thursday, hitting a record early in the day. Bitcoin gained about 300% last year.

Mastercard customers are already using their cards “to buy cryptocurrencies, especially during the recent rise in the value of bitcoin,” the company said in a statement. The company said that not all cryptocurrencies will be included and, although it did not specify that Bitcoin will be one of the accepted ones, it was the only such Mastercard currency named.

“We are also seeing users increasingly take advantage of cryptocurrencies to access these assets and convert them into traditional spending currencies,” added Mastercard.

Meanwhile, BNY Mellon – the oldest American bank, whose history dates back to Alexander Hamilton’s founding of the Bank of New York in 1784 – announced Thursday that it has formed a “digital assets” unit that will help customers meet their needs. growth of digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, at an unspecified time at the end of this year.

Customer demand and clearer regulation “is a great opportunity for us to expand our current service offerings in this emerging field,” said Roman Regelman, CEO of Asset Services and Digital Director of Mellon.

The Bitcoin rally is not enough to dethrone the strong dollar
In November, Rick Rieder, chief investment officer with fixed income at Black stone (BLK), one of the most powerful asset managers in the world, said he could see bitcoin replacing gold as an investment tool.
But others continue to question its value. Last month Michael Hartnett, chief investment strategist at Securities Bank of America (ferry), referred to the recent bitcoin rally as the “mother of all bubbles”.

– Paul R. La Monica of CNN Business contributed to this report

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