rca

According to CoinDesk, Mastercard Transaction Services (U.S.) LLC, a subsidiary of Mastercard, has been granted a BitLicense by the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), allowing it to conduct digital asset-related business in the state. This approval is part of its strategy to build a blockchain-based payment and settlement infrastructure, focusing on stablecoins and tokenized deposits.The New York BitLicense requires licensed institutions to meet strict standards in areas such as capital, cybersecurity, compliance, and consumer protection. Mastercard stated that this license will support its layout in digital currencies such as stablecoins and tokenized deposits, while continuing to adhere to the compliance and operational standards of its global payment network, promoting the parallel development of traditional financial systems and blockchain payment tracks.

According to CoinDesk, Solana's decentralized exchange Orca has launched a "permissioned pool" infrastructure aimed at tokenized trading of physical assets with high compliance requirements. The first participant is the commodity tokenization company Streamex, whose gold-linked security GLDY will become the first compliant token traded in this system.Orca stated that this mechanism is primarily aimed at the U.S. market, allowing only qualified investors who have passed KYC verification to buy, sell, and hold the relevant tokens. Issuers can customize access rules, which will be automatically enforced by the on-chain system. The permissioned pool operates on top of Orca's existing liquidity infrastructure, and the interface will indicate whether assets are restricted and whether users are eligible to trade.

According to BBX data, yesterday the layout of traditional payment institutions in the cryptocurrency infrastructure showed divergence, with institutions having clear differences in their views on ETH and the altcoin sector. The core dynamics are as follows:Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE: $MA) signed an acquisition agreement for the UK stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK on March 17 for a maximum of $1.8 billion (including $300 million in performance-based payments), which directly led Mastercard to abandon its previously pursued strategic investment plan in Zerohash (a privately held company). According to CoinDesk on May 19, Mastercard exited negotiations with Zerohash after the completion of the BVNK acquisition, and Zerohash is currently seeking to initiate a new financing round with a valuation of over $1.5 billion (higher than the $1 billion valuation established during the D-2 round of financing of $104 million in September 2025); the strategic logic behind Mastercard's acquisition of BVNK is that BVNK has a stablecoin payment infrastructure covering over 130 countries and a difficult-to-replicate combination of multi-country payment licenses; Mastercard's Chief Product Officer Jorn Lambert stated that the goal is to integrate stablecoins into the core network of Mastercard Move cross-border payments, rather than treating them as a peripheral experiment.JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: $JPM) analysts cited by CoinDesk on May 19 released the latest research report indicating that in the current market environment, Ethereum and the broader altcoin sector will continue to lag behind Bitcoin, primarily due to three structural weaknesses: weak network activity, stagnation in DeFi ecosystem growth (Solana's TVL has dropped from a peak of $13.1 billion in 2025 to about $5.5 billion), and limited real-world adoption scenarios; analysts believe that for the altcoin sector to catch up with Bitcoin's performance, a "significant network activity explosion" is a prerequisite, and this condition currently lacks visible short-term catalysts.

Mastercard has abandoned its investment plan for the cryptocurrency infrastructure company Zerohash, which had previously agreed in March to acquire the UK stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK for $1.8 billion. Mastercard had considered a strategic investment in Chicago-based Zerohash in January of this year. At that time, Zerohash was seeking to raise $250 million at a valuation of $1.5 billion, while the company is currently advancing a new funding round at a higher valuation. Founded in 2017, Zerohash primarily provides APIs and developer tools for cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and tokenized products.Meanwhile, recent transactions involving Kraken's parent company Payward and Bullish indicate that consolidation in the digital asset infrastructure sector is ongoing. In terms of stablecoin payment arrangements, Mastercard has acquired BVNK for $1.8 billion and may pay an additional $300 million in performance-based compensation. BVNK currently serves payment and payroll platforms like Worldpay and Deel for cross-border payments, fund settlement, and financial management.Mastercard plans to integrate BVNK's technology into its Mastercard Move network to support 24/7 stablecoin settlement for payment institutions and merchant acquirers, and to explore adding stablecoin checkout functionality in payment gateways. Analysts believe that this transaction will further intensify the competition between Mastercard and Visa in the networked strategy of payment networks and accelerate the evolution of traditional cross-border clearing systems towards stablecoin settlement models.

According to crypto journalist Eleanor Terrett, sources say that a bipartisan group of minority senators in the U.S. Senate held discussions last night regarding the CLARITY Act, attempting to push the Democrats to make concessions on at least two outstanding issues, but ultimately failed to reach an agreement.Senator Cynthia Lummis stated that both sides had reached consensus on "99% of the content" of the bill and expressed hope that the Democrats would continue to address the remaining issues after the bill passes committee review; otherwise, if a similar incident to FTX occurs in the future, "they can only blame themselves."Reports indicate that Democratic Senators Adam Schiff and Ruben Gallego have been pushing for a compromise on the ethical standards and conflict of interest clauses involving the president's family before the committee review, making it one of the conditions for supporting the bill.Additionally, some Democratic lawmakers have raised concerns about provisions related to the Blockchain Regulatory Certainty Act (BRCA). This provision aims to prohibit lawsuits against non-custodial software developers based on money transfer laws.Sources say that both sides have made substantial progress on ethical and conflict of interest issues, but disagreements over amendments to the BRCA ultimately led to the breakdown of negotiations. The market currently widely expects that this committee review will show clear partisanship.

The next-generation financial operating system PhotonPay has won three awards at the Mastercard Annual Partner Awards Gala, namely: New Product Launch Award (Physical Card), New Service Launch Award (MDES Digital Empowerment), and New Service Launch Award (Consulting Services). This marks PhotonPay's role as a next-generation financial operating system that is comprehensively reshaping the financial infrastructure landscape for global enterprises.The PhotonPay physical card is issued on the Mastercard network, supporting real-time consumption tracking globally, multi-level limit control, 3D Secure authentication, and significantly reducing cross-border transaction fees. The flexible open API meets the personalized customization needs of enterprises.MDES Digital Empowerment reflects the deep integration of PhotonPay with Mastercard's digital empowerment services, allowing virtual and physical cards to be linked to Apple Pay and Google Pay in seconds, with transaction security ensured throughout by tokenization technology.The Consulting Services Award recognizes the effective collaboration between PhotonPay and the Mastercard expert team, helping PhotonPay create more compliant and competitive card product solutions for global clients.Lewison, founder and CEO of PhotonPay, stated that these honors reflect Mastercard's trust in PhotonPay and PhotonPay's adherence to its own standards. The company remains focused on building financial infrastructure that provides global enterprises with the tools for borderless operation, expansion, and competition.

According to the official blog of Ondo Finance, Ondo Finance (Ondo) has completed its first near-real-time tokenized U.S. Treasury fund cross-border interbank exchange in collaboration with Kinexys by J.P. Morgan, Mastercard, and Ripple.In this pilot project, Ripple exchanged its Ondo short-term U.S. government bonds (OUSG) held on the XRP Ledger. After processing the exchange, Ondo sent fiat payment instructions via the Mastercard Multi-Token Network, with the settlement of funds executed by the blockchain infrastructure of Kinexys by J.P. Morgan, and the U.S. dollar funds delivered to Ripple's bank account in Singapore through its correspondent banking network.This project demonstrates the feasibility of public blockchain infrastructure working in conjunction with interbank settlement systems, establishing a framework for global banks to utilize tokenized assets for 24/7 real-time cross-border settlements.

According to Jinshi reports, the UK's financial regulatory authority has launched an investigation into Mastercard (MA.N), Visa (V.N), and PayPal (PYPL.O) due to suspicions of anti-competitive behavior regarding the flow and use of funds in the PayPal digital wallet.The UK's Financial Conduct Authority stated on Wednesday that it has not yet concluded whether the relevant companies have violated competition law. PayPal disclosed this investigation in a regulatory filing this week. A representative from PayPal stated that the company is cooperating with the FCA investigation but will not comment further as the case is still ongoing.

According to Forbes, the Bitcoin mining company GoMining plans to launch its Bitcoin native payment protocol GoBTC, based on its own block production, at the Consensus conference.The protocol offers users instant authorization and settlement on the Bitcoin mainnet within a few hours, charging merchants a fee rate of 0.2%, which is an order of magnitude lower than the 1.5% to 3.5% rates of Visa and Mastercard.

According to Fortune, the stablecoin infrastructure startup Rain is currently valued at $1.95 billion and has announced a partnership with payment giant Mastercard to issue credit and prepaid cards, as well as explore pathways for using stablecoins for payment settlements.Previously, Rain primarily relied on the Visa network to issue card products, and this collaboration with Mastercard signifies its entry into the "dual card network" layout phase, further expanding its institutional client market. Rain stated that this partnership will focus on serving large institutional clients that are deeply bound to a single payment network, enabling them to introduce stablecoin settlement capabilities without changing their existing payment systems.Meanwhile, the application of stablecoins continues to expand at the industry level, with institutions such as Stripe and Coinbase promoting the integration of stablecoin payments and settlements, indicating that the fusion of traditional finance and crypto payment infrastructure is accelerating. Analysts believe that as the regulatory framework becomes clearer, stablecoins are rapidly shifting from trading tools to enterprise payment and cross-border settlement infrastructure.

According to The Block, MoonPay has launched the "MoonAgents Card," a stablecoin debit card based on the Mastercard network, designed specifically for AI agents, allowing them to spend directly from on-chain self-custody wallets.This virtual card is issued through Monavate and in collaboration with the Exodus wallet, enabling real-time conversion of stablecoins to fiat for payments to online merchants worldwide that accept Mastercard, without the need to preload funds or move assets off-chain; in case of transaction failure, funds are immediately returned to the wallet, and custody of the wallet always remains unchanged.The CEO of MoonPay stated that this addresses the pain point of AI agents being unable to spend at merchants previously. It is currently available in the UK and Latin America through MoonPay CLI, with the US and EU set to launch soon (subject to KYC completion). This move targets the trend of AI agents increasingly using cryptocurrency for transactions in the future.

According to Bitcoin.com, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has issued a notice seeking public comment on the rule change proposed by the NYSE Arca.The proposal requires that at least 85% of the assets in commodity trust shares must meet existing eligibility standards, with derivatives calculated based on nominal total value. Eligible assets include Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP, which have been traded on designated markets for at least six months and have exchange-traded products providing significant exposure, while NFTs and collectibles are explicitly excluded.If the trust holds Bitcoin and over-the-counter call options on Bitcoin ETFs, only about 71% of the exposure will meet the requirements and will not be approved. The proposal aims to limit most exposure to a manageable range of assets while allowing more products to be listed. The SEC can approve, reject, or initiate related procedures during the review period.

KuCoin announced the launch of KuCard in Australia, allowing users to use cryptocurrency assets for daily consumption at merchants worldwide that accept Mastercard, with payment options through Apple Pay and Google Pay. The service initially supports 37 USDC trading pairs, covering mainstream digital assets such as BTC, ETH, and USDT, with real-time conversion to fiat currency during the settlement process. KuCoin stated that this move is an important step in enhancing compliance and transparency in the cryptocurrency payment experience, and it is the latest progress in promoting the real-world application of cryptocurrency assets after completing its registration with AUSTRAC as a digital currency exchange (DCE).

According to BeInCrypto, Mastercard has joined the Blockchain Security Standards Committee (BSSC) as a charter-level member, collaborating with members such as Coinbase, Fireblocks, Anchorage Digital, and BitGo to develop a security framework for blockchain networks and tokenized assets.Mastercard will also join a working group focused on security and privacy guidelines, with Claire Le Gal from the security solutions department, responsible for fraud prevention, cyber resilience, disputes, and threat intelligence, representing Mastercard on the BSSC board. The executive director of BSSC stated that Mastercard's payment experience is of significant value in establishing robust blockchain security rules. Mastercard has launched multi-token networks and crypto credential products aimed at embedding trust in blockchain and tokenized infrastructure.

Orca posted on the X platform that its frontend is hosted on the cloud hosting platform Vercel. In response to the Vercel security incident, all potentially leaked keys and deployment credentials have been rotated out of caution. Orca's on-chain protocol and user funds were not affected. The official team will continue to monitor the situation and will provide updates as more information becomes available.

Farcaster posted, "There will be no token issuance. The 'token discussion' circulating in the market is actually related to Hypersnap, which is a fork project of the Farcaster protocol. The Hypersnap team refers to its token as the 'Farcaster token' in discussions, which has led to confusion among users who are not familiar with the technical details.It is important to clarify that this is not a comment on the fork project itself. We just want to avoid this kind of speculation that continues to create unnecessary noise, such as bot accounts, airdrop users, and scam accounts, all of which can affect the overall network experience. It should be made clear that there is no so-called Farcaster protocol token airdrop."

The Web3 asset data platform RootData has outlined Mastercard's cryptocurrency business partners, which now exceed 100, covering multiple key areas such as public chains, stablecoins, trading platforms, risk control services, and payment infrastructure. Unlike Visa and PayPal's more "selective partnership" strategy, Mastercard aims to become the connective layer for all payment links.Structurally, this network can be understood as a "multi-node collaborative system":Assets and Settlement: Through stablecoin issuers like Circle and Paxos, as well as multiple public chains, it undertakes on-chain assets and settlement capabilities.Connection and Circulation: Integrating cross-chain protocols, custody services, and payment channels to allow different chains and assets to flow within its system.Compliance and Security: Introducing risk control service providers like TRM Labs and Elliptic to build compliance capabilities aimed at the global regulatory environment.Applications and Reach: Collaborating with exchanges, wallets, and financial institutions to transform on-chain capabilities into user-perceived payment and consumption scenarios.Therefore, Mastercard's strategy is essentially not about selecting suppliers but about lowering access thresholds and expanding network externalities. It connects more upstream chains and asset issuers while attracting payment institutions and financial terminals downstream, making its strategy more aligned with the center of the next-generation payment system. Related compilation: 【Mastercard Crypto Partner Network Compilation (Continuously Updated)】Cryptocurrency projects actively showcasing their partner networks have become a key way to enhance transparency and market trust. It is reported that RootData welcomes Web3 project parties to claim data and continues to track and open more project business relationship disclosure channels. The platform has continuously released multiple editions of the cryptocurrency project ecosystem map, nominating Web3 ecosystem partners for upstream clients such as Visa, Stripe, and Coinbase.If you wish to nominate your project in future ecosystem maps, please fill out the 【RootData 2026 Industry Ecosystem Mapping】 form to supplement your important clients and partners.

On April 7, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME Group) announced plans to launch futures contracts for Avalanche and Sui, pending regulatory review.The contracts will offer both standard and micro specifications, aimed at providing traders with capital efficiency and strategic flexibility. Micro contracts typically have lower margin requirements, helping to enhance accessibility for retail and institutional participants. This move further expands the existing cryptocurrency derivatives product line at the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, which currently includes futures for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, and XRP, reflecting the exchange's ongoing strategy to deepen its digital asset derivatives offerings.

Robinhood announced that its cryptocurrency platform has launched trading for Solana ecosystem tokens ORCA and RAY, and users in New York State can also participate.