Mastercard wins New York regulatory approval to scale digital currency infrastructure

Mastercard Transaction Services (U.S.) LLC (MTS US), Mastercard’s US subsidiary for international money transfers, has been granted a BitLicense by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) to support stablecoin and tokenized deposit settlement.

New York’s BitLicense framework is considered one of the industry’s most comprehensive regulatory regimes. NYDFS has been instrumental in creating regulatory clarity and supporting the responsible growth of digital assets.

The approval reflects Mastercard’s commitment to meeting rigorous regulatory standards. Regulatory clarity plays a key role in supporting trust as digital value applications continue to mature beyond experimentation, according to Jorn Lambert, Chief Product Officer at Mastercard.

“This approval underscores our focus on aligning innovation with regulatory expectations of high levels of security, compliance and risk management,” Lambert noted.

Mastercard said the approval aligns with its broad approach to supporting the growth of payment and settlement infrastructure for digital currencies such as stablecoins and tokenized deposits, while continuing to uphold the standards of its worldwide payments network.

The company added that it remains focused on advancing interoperability, dependability and trust across the payments ecosystem as global financial systems continue to advance.

The BVNK acquisition and partnership stack

In March 2026, Mastercard announced its acquisition of BVNK, an infrastructure provider that connects fiat currencies and stablecoins across leading blockchain networks, for up to $1.8 billion. That makes Mastercard the first major publicly traded payments company to enter the stablecoin infrastructure market through an outright acquisition.

The deal is expected to close by the end of 2026, pending regulatory approvals.

Combined with existing partnerships with Circle, the issuer behind USDC, and Paxos, another regulated stablecoin operator, Mastercard will have full-stack stablecoin payments capability, from digital wallets to merchant acceptance once the BVNK acquisition closes.