Mastercard is launching a multi-tiered upgrade to its payment infrastructure. In addition to traditional fiat payments, the network will now support intraday settlements as well as on-chain settlements using regulated stablecoins.
The key change: issuers and acquirers have the choice—settle in fiat or via blockchain, using a single infrastructure.
Mastercard has confirmed support for six stablecoins: USDC from Circle, PYUSD, USDG, and USDP from Paxos, RLUSD from Ripple, and SoFiUSD from SoFi. Settlements will be available on eight blockchains: Arbitrum, Base, Canton, Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, Tempo, and XRPL.
The first partners in the U.S. and Latin America will be ARQ, CBW Bank, Cross River, Lead Bank, and Nuvei. Expansion to other regions is planned by the end of 2026.