Mastercard to address pent-up demand by offering banks an easy way into crypto
according to CNBCpayment processing giant Mastercard is rolling out a program to help financial institutions offer crypto trading.
Responding to pent-up demand
The program provides a turnkey solution for banks to meet their customers’ cryptocurrency trading requirements. According to Mastercard, the service leverages his Paxos trading platform to execute trades and help meet regulatory compliance and security requirements.
“Mastercard handles regulatory compliance and security, citing two main reasons banks avoid this asset class.”
Jorn Lambert, Chief Digital Officer at Mastercard, says people are wary of investing in cryptocurrencies due to volatility, hacks and negative press reports about the famous bankruptcy of CeFi.
Nevertheless, citing a recent poll in which 60% of respondents said they would prefer to “try the water” through their existing bank, Lambert said the program would address this pent-up demand. He said he would.
“There are a lot of consumers who are really interested in this and interested in crypto, but would feel more confident if those services were provided by financial institutions.”
The pilot program will begin in Q1 2023 with plans to expand the rollout to other regions. At this time, details of which areas are being considered and which banks have already been registered have not been disclosed.
Crypto Winter Concerns
Nearly a year after the November 2021 market high, net outflows fell 68% to a total of $2.4 trillion during the period.
Many tokens, especially small game projects, suffer drawdowns near 99%. However, in recent weeks, price action has generally leveled out.
As a general measure of market sentiment about where the market is headed next, Bitcoin long/short ratio Currently, 52.8%/47.2% are in favor of going long.
Commenting on the crypto winter, Lambert said it would be “shortsighted” to view the current bear market as the end of digital assets, as some naysayers have said.
As such, he sees upcoming US regulation as a positive development in the field. A clear legal framework would eliminate many current problems and bring much-needed clarity.
“Once regulations are introduced, we will see a higher level of security available to crypto platforms and many of the current issues will be resolved in the coming quarters.”
