Marqeta’s Mastercard will power Australian prepaid crypto card from Stables

Mastercard will reportedly power the card for Australian stablecoin firm Stables, as announced by mutual partner Marqeta in a March 20 press release.

The partnership will allow Stables — which currently offers a digital wallet and stores balances in the USDC stablecoin — to issue Mastercard prepaid cards through Marqeta.

Marqeta Mastercards will power payments

When the card becomes available, users will be able to spend the balance from their Stables wallet wherever Mastercard cards are accepted — both online and in physical locations. Marqeta’s Just-in-Time Funding funding feature means that users will not be required to preload balances — as is required by some other crypto-enabled prepaid cards.

In addition to its soon-to-launch payment card, Stables is also preparing to introduce wallet-to-wallet transfers and interest-bearing “earn” features.

Though the press release does not provide a launch date, Stables’ website suggests that the card will be available beginning in early 2023, implying a launch in the near future.

How is Mastercard involved?

Marqeta works in close partnership with Mastercard as well as its competitor, Visa. In October 2020, Mastercard announced that it would expand its global partnership with Marqeta to launch new card programs in various regions.

Elsewhere, Mastercard Australasia head of fintech Kallan Hogan told Cointelegraph that Stables’ payment card will rely on Mastercard’s global network and services — including its recent blockchain surveillance acquisition Ciphertrace. That report also suggests that the card will be available in Australia before it becomes globally available.

It is nevertheless unclear how much of an active role Mastercard has in the partnership. CryptoSlate reached out to MasterCard to request details of its involvement. The company did not provide a statement to CryptoSlate by press time.

Mastercard powers several other crypto-enabled cards, including those offered by
Nexo, Uphold, Wirex, Bitpay, Revolut, and various other crypto firms.