trustnodes.com
Mastercard will facilitate the offering of bitcoin crypto services by any of its merchants following a partnership with Bakkt, the bitcoin custodial platform.
“We want to offer all of our partners the ability to more easily add crypto services to whatever it is they’re doing,” Sherri Haymond, Mastercard’s executive vice president of digital partnerships, said in an interview before adding:
“Our partners, be they banks, fintechs or merchants can offer their customers the ability to buy, sell and hold cryptocurrency through an integration with the Baktt platform.”
No further detail is provided with an official announcement expected as Mastercard moves in to effectively replace BitPay and other similar services that facilitate bitcoin payments.
“We’re lowering the barriers to entry, allowing people to take something like your rewards points and trade them into crypto,” said Bakkt CEO Gavin Michael.