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Mastercard’s global head of new digital infrastructure and fintech, Jessica Turner, recently spoke about the company’s move to offer crypto rewards to its cardholders. The executive said that the rewards program is “an act of brilliance” as it could help increase the adoption of digital currencies.
With the crypto market rally sending Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), and other digital currencies to new all-time highs, Turner noted that people are getting more inclined to earning cryptos as rewards. “Certainly three years ago, people probably weren’t as excited about earning crypto as they are now,” the Mastercard exec said in a pre-recorded conversation broadcast Wednesday at the Coindesk’s Consensus 2021 conference.
With Mastercard’s massive user base worldwide, the program could help boost cryptocurrency’s adoption. “Understanding that, and using it as an opportunity to get more people involved in the cryptocurrency space in a safe way by offering rewards with something that people know how to use in their everyday life – which is Mastercard – is really an act of brilliance,” Turner said.
Mastercard partnered with crypto exchange Gemini to launch the crypto rewards credit card by summer. The card will be issued by WebBank of Salt Lake City, Utah, and has a waitlist of around 250,000 people.
Under the program, cardholders can spend fiat and earn up to 3 percent as a rebate. However, the rebate will come in the form of crypto, which can be Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH) or any of the digital currencies available on Gemini’s platform.
Aside from the crypto rewards program, Turner also confirmed Mastercard’s decision to support stablecoins. “We announced recently that we will support stablecoins on our network, and that’s because stablecoins don’t have volatility,” she explained.
With stablecoin support, cardholders will have more options on how to pay for their transactions. “It could be stablecoins today, it can be our normal card network other days, it can be an ACH for other things. We’re a multi-rail organization,” Turner added.
