Mastercard expands settlement with regulated stablecoins

Mastercard announced Wednesday it is expanding its global payment settlement infrastructure to include on-chain settlement using regulated stablecoins, a move that will allow transactions to be settled outside traditional banking hours. The payments giant said the new system will support intraday, weekend, and holiday settlement alongside its existing fiat currency processes.

The initiative will initially support six regulated U.S. dollar stablecoins: Circle’s USDC, Paxos-issued PYUSD, USDG, and USDP, Ripple’s RLUSD, and SoFiUSD. These digital assets will be available across several blockchain networks, including Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Base, Arbitrum, XRPL, Canton, and Tempo. The company stated the goal is to provide financial institutions with greater flexibility in managing liquidity and supporting faster payment flows for use cases like cross-border payments, treasury management, and business payouts.

Raj Dhamodharan, Mastercard’s executive vice president of blockchain and digital assets, said the next phase of stablecoin adoption is about real-world utility, particularly in settlement where timing and liquidity are critical. He added that the expansion helps partners...