Mastercard Will Begin Allow Merchants To Accept Cryptocurrency

Mastercard will allow more merchants to accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment in the wake of Elon Musk buying $1.5 billion in Bitcoin.

The company announced on Wednesday. They revealed that they would open up their payment network to the digital coin this year. Raj Dhamodharan, Mastercard’s executive vice president of digital asset and blockchain products and partnerships, said that the objective is to allow customers to use alternative payment methods.

“Mastercard isn’t here to recommend you start using cryptocurrencies,” he said in a blog post. “But we are here to enable customers, merchants, and businesses to move digital value — traditional or crypto — however, they want.”

Mastercard is the latest major corporation to welcome cryptocurrency after Elon Musk announced he had purchased $1.5 billion in Bitcoin. The company called the move “a big change that will require a lot of work.” While they didn’t specify which specific cryptocurrencies it will allow in its network, the company stated that it expects to provide support for “crypto-assets that offer reliability and security.”