Institutional interest for digital assets continues to grow rapidly, demonstrating that cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and nonfungible tokens (NFT) are here to stay. At the same time, traditional financial institutions are beginning to understand the dire need to properly support digital assets. For example, although payments giants such as Mastercard (NYSE:MA) and Visa (NYSE:V) currently offer crypto-enabled credit and debit cards, these companies are also forming partnerships with crypto organizations to enable better security and trust for consumers transacting with digital currencies.
Shedding light on the matter, Ajay Bhalla, president of cyber and intelligence at Mastercard, told Cointelegraph that Mastercard’s customers and other partners are seeking solutions to ensure that the crypto economy is instilled with the same peace of mind that consumers experience with traditional payment methods. In order to provide this, the payments giant recently announced that it was going to acquire CipherTrace, a blockchain analytics intelligence firm that has developed crypto forensic capabilities for over 900 cryptocurrencies.