Sachin Mehra, Chief Financial Officer of Mastercard, spoke about bitcoin (BTC), cryptocurrencies and what they represent for the company. 

For Mehra “anything that is a payment vehicle in our minds must have a store of value”, but if the value of that form of payment fluctuates every day, it represents “a problem from the point of view of the mentality of the consumer,” he told Bloomberg.  

This makes the company consider cryptocurrencies “more like an asset class”. On the other hand, Mehra believes that stablecoins and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) have greater potential to be means of payment .

He also commented that Mastercard is the bridge between people who use their debit and credit products to buy cryptocurrencies . “We act as the off-ramp – when people want to cash it out, we help them gain access so they can use their crypto balances everywhere Mastercard is accepted,” the executive commented.

Mastercard dives into NFTs  

In addition to cryptocurrencies, Mastercard decided to delve into the world of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), as it not only allows its customers to be exposed to Bitcoin, but also seeks to simplify the acquisition of collectible tokens .

Last June, they announced that they are working with several platforms in that sector to facilitate the purchase of digital collectibles directly with their cards . 

Platforms that have partnered with Mastercard for these purposes include Immutable X, Candy Digital, The Sandbox, Mintable, Spring, Nifty Gateway, and MoonPay. 

Until now, in the OpenSea marketplace, one of the largest today, to acquire NFTs you have to comply with several steps that can make the purchase a bit cumbersome and this is something that Mastercard wants to avoid its customers.