Visa, Mastercard halt crypto partnerships amid market uncertainty: Reuters

• Visa and Mastercard are slamming brakes on respective crypto products and pausing new partnerships.
• A Reuters report published on Tuesday says the payment giants are citing uncertain market and regulatory conditions.
• The companies will however continue to focus on blockchain technology, according to sources. 

Visa and Mastercard, the world’s leading payment card companies, have reportedly put brakes on their respective crypto-related products, Reuters reported on Tuesday.

The payment giants are taking this step as a result of the recent turmoil in crypto, particularly following shocking collapses and bankruptcies across the industry as witnessed in 2022.

Other than the market conditions that have derailed confidence, there is a fresh regulatory cloud that currently hangs over the broader crypto sector – factors that now see Visa and Mastercard push back on their plans, sources said.

Visa and Mastercard pause new crypto partnerships

Increased adoption of cryptocurrencies in the payments sector has over the past two years seen Visa and Mastercard take an aggressive approach towards integrating crypto. 

The US-based companies have indeed struck numerous partnerships with projects and services across the digital assets space. CoinJournal has indeed highlighted numerous Visa-related news as the company aggressively pursued deals that currently number more than 60 crypto firms, including those with Crypto.com and Nexo. 

Earlier this month, as covered here, the payments firm also inked a long-term partnership with crypto payments app Wirex.

Despite this, according to sources, the company has dropped plans for new partnerships as it pushes back on crypto-related products and services. This will be the case until the uncertain regulatory landscape changes.

However, both Visa and Mastercard are not scraping their crypto strategies just yet, people familiar with the developments noted.

Mastercard, for instance, will push forth with its blockchain technology efforts, a spokesperson said. The focus is on how to tap into this underlying technology to build efficient systems and to address existing pain points.

Mastercard announced support for cryptocurrencies on its network in February 2021.