Key Takeaways
- Mastercard’s partnership with MoonPay will enable stablecoin payments with approximately 150 million merchants.
- Stablecoins processed $35 trillion in transactions over the past year, more than double Visa’s annual payment volume.
- U.S. lawmakers recently clarified that certain fiat-backed stablecoins are not securities, but uncertainty continues across the broader landscape.
Mastercard has partnered with MoonPay to launch stablecoin payment cards for individuals and businesses, marking the company’s latest move into the crypto space.
The move comes as stablecoins continue to grow in popularity despite regulatory uncertainty continuing to plague certain areas of their growth.
Mastercard’s MoonPay Stablecoin Partnership
Stablecoins, which are typically pegged to stable assets like the U.S. dollar, offer the price stability of fiat currencies while leveraging the efficiency of blockchain networks.
Through this partnership, Mastercard will utilize infrastructure developed by Iron, a stablecoin payment platform acquired by MoonPay in March, according to Decrypt.
The collaboration is expected to enable stablecoin payments for approximately 150 million merchants globally.
All transactions will be automatically converted into fiat currency, ensuring seamless integration with existing financial systems.
Expanding Crypto Strategy
The partnership follows a series of recent crypto-related initiatives by Mastercard, including collaborations with Nuvei, OKX, and Circle.
In April, Mastercard and Circle announced a strategic alliance to enhance payment systems through end-to-end stablecoin acceptance.
“When it comes to blockchain and digital assets, the benefits for mainstream use cases are clear,” said Jorn Lambert, Chief Product Officer at Mastercard.
Other major financial players, including PayPal, Visa, and Stripe, have also increased their involvement in digital assets.
Visa, for instance, became one of the first financial networks to settle transactions in USDC in 2020 and has since expanded its crypto services, including stablecoin-based debit cards.
Regulatory Uncertainty and Market Growth
In April 2025, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) clarified that certain stablecoins, referred to as “Covered Stablecoins,” are not considered securities under federal law.
These include coins pegged 1:1 to the U.S. dollar and backed by low-risk assets such as cash. However, regulatory ambiguity still surrounds yield-bearing and algorithmic stablecoins.
Despite these uncertainties, stablecoin usage has surged.
Between February 2024 and February 2025, stablecoins processed $35 trillion in transactions, more than double Visa’s total annual payment volume of $15.7 trillion, which declined by $1.1 trillion from 2023.
The total supply of stablecoins has reached $214 billion, while monthly transaction volumes have climbed from $1.9 trillion to $4.1 trillion, according to Dune’s State of Stablecoins 2025 report.
Kurt Robson is a London-based reporter at CCN, specialising in the fast-moving worlds of crypto and emerging technology. He began his career covering local news in Cornwall after graduating from Falmouth University with First Class Honours in Journalism. There, he cut his teeth on everything from council meetings to missing swans.
He quickly rose through the ranks to become a frontline journalist at several of the UK’s leading national newspapers. Over the years, he has interviewed musicians and celebrities, reported from courtrooms and crime scenes, and secured multiple front-page exclusives.
Following the upheaval of the COVID-19 pandemic, Kurt shifted his focus to technology journalism—just ahead of the AI boom. With a natural curiosity and a trained eye for emerging trends, he has found a new rhythm in reporting on innovation.
At CCN, Kurt's work focuses on the cutting edge of crypto, blockchain, AI, and the evolving digital world. Drawing on his background in people-first reporting and his deep interest in disruptive tech, Kurt delivers stories that are insightful, entertaining, and human-centric.
