Mastercard (NYSE: MA) advances in crypto economy with acquisition of digital asset security and fraud solutions firm CipherTrace.
Mastercard Completes CipherTrace Acquisition
Mastercard yesterday announced it has completed the acquisition of CipherTrace. CipherTrace is a key player in the crypto space, and currently serves some of the world’s largest banks, cryptocurrency exchanges and other financial institutions. Last month, Mastercard revealed its plan to acquire CipherTrace.
Ajay Bhalla, president of Cyber and Intelligence at Mastercard, said:
“Today marks a significant milestone for Mastercard as we further enhance our strategic capabilities, technologies and teams to support the evolution of digital assets. We believe that working together across the industry, we can deliver more security, transparency and trust to the payments ecosystem.”
Mastercard Boosts Its Crypto Capabilities
The growing popularity of Bitcoin and other digital assets have also created requirement for robust security infrastructure. Being a key player in the global payments market, Mastercard is quickly responding to new technological advancements. Mastercard has taken several big steps this year to support crypto firms as well as crypto users. In July, Mastercard launched a new Start Path global startup engagement program dedicated to supporting blockchain, digital assets, and cryptocurrency firms.
With the acquisition of CipherTrace, which has insight into more than 900 cryptocurrencies, Mastercard is likely to gain strategic advantage in crypto space.
Mastercard states that the CipherTrace deal creates an integrated offering that combines AI, cyber and blockchain capabilities to provide businesses with greater transparency to help identify and understand their risks and manage regulatory and compliance obligations.
The CipherTrace acquisition advances Mastercard’s digital assets strategy and differentiates its real-time payments infrastructure.