On June 29, it was reported that the payments giant was planning to launch a “Multi Token Network” in beta in the UK over the next few months.
Mastercard executive vice president and head of crypto and blockchain, Raj Dhamodharan, described it as an “app store powered by blockchain technologies for building regulated financial applications.”
Mastercard Delving Deeper into Crypto
The Mastercard’s MTN will give developers access to tools the credit card company has been developing this year.
These include a private version of the Ethereum blockchain on which the firm will encourage developers to build new applications, the report noted. Dhamodharan told Fortune that:
“A lot of the things people cover and talk about these days in crypto are the regulatory aspects of it and all the technology and investment as an asset and so forth,”
He added that the underlying technology that powers crypto is “actually quite useful.”
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The company confirmed its commitment to crypto in the official announcement, which flagged the move as a “natural evolution” for a “wider range of payment solutions.”
“Our goal is to support the wider digital asset industry and interested parties to help fortify confidence in its future.”
Mastercard’s previous forays into the digital asset sector include non-fungible tokens (NFTs), crypto-linked credit and debit cards, crypto infrastructure, and developer tools.
The firm also offers products such as ‘Crypto Secure,’ ‘Crypto Source’ and ‘Crypto Credential’ which it claims bring “more transparency and trust to this space.”
Programs and applications on the new ‘app store’ can be written in Solidity, the Ethereum programming language.
Moreover, developers using the beta will be able to experiment with tokenized commercial bank deposits and blockchain data that state how much cash someone has in their bank account.
Mastercard plans to make MTN available in additional markets around the world over time, according to the announcement.
Crypto Market Outlook
Crypto markets have begun their retreat from Bitcoin’s resistance zone above $30K. As a result, total market capitalization is down 1.4% today at $1.20 trillion, according to CoinGecko.
BTC remains above $30K but only just, trading at $30,100 at the time of writing. Meanwhile, Ethereum prices are beginning to break down again, with a 1.8% decline to $1,831.
The entire top 50 altcoins were in the red at the time of writing.
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