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| Mastercard partners with Stables to settle stablecoin transactions in Asia-Pacific region |
Mastercard, a leading global payment processing company, has partnered with Stables, an Australian stablecoin platform, to launch a stablecoin wallet to facilitate transactions in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. The partnership is expected to bridge traditional finance with decentralized finance worlds. Stables will support deposits and withdrawals via the Australian Dollar at the time of launch, with USD, EUR, GBP, and other APAC currencies, as well as African and Latin American currencies, to be integrated eventually.
This collaboration is an attempt to bolster the confidence in stablecoins that has been wavering in recent months. The collapse of the Terra ecosystem due to the depegging of its stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) initiated the first contagion of 2022, which was followed by the halt in the issuance of Binance USD (BUSD) by Paxos due to regulatory concerns. The concerns have resulted in significant depegging in top coins, such as Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC).
Despite these concerns, Mastercard is expanding its reach in the APAC region, allowing retail customers to conduct transactions using stablecoins. The partnership will result in Mastercard launching a stablecoin wallet, enabling customers to conduct transactions securely and safely using stablecoins. Stables CEO, Daniel Li, believes that stablecoins will play a pivotal role in the new financial system and will be core to bridging the worlds of traditional and decentralized finance.
As the world becomes increasingly digital, and cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies become more mainstream, stablecoins are becoming more popular as a reliable alternative to traditional fiat currencies. It is expected that with more companies such as Mastercard adopting stablecoins, the confidence in stablecoins will improve, and more people will trust and use stablecoins to conduct their daily transactions.
