Mastercard CFO Shares Views On Company’s Cryptocurrency Strategy

The Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Mastercard, Sachin Mehra, recently shared his opinion about cryptocurrency in an interview published by Bloomberg.

When asked how successful his company’s cryptocurrency strategy has been, Mehra explained: “In the crypto world, we play the role as an on-ramp, with people using our debit and credit products to buy crypto. And we act as the off-ramp: When people want to cash it, we help them gain access to be able to use their crypto balances everywhere Mastercard is accepted.” The Mastercard executive further noted:

“That’s a revenue-generating capability which has been fairly successful ever since crypto environments came up.”

Mastercard previously revealed that it plans to release a product and services line bordering on cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).

Mastercard Views Crypto As An Asset

The CFO was asked how much adoption crypto could get as a form of payment. Mehra answered: “For anything to be a payment vehicle in our mind, it needs to have a store of value,” he replied. “If something fluctuates in value every day, such that your Starbucks coffee today costs you $3 and tomorrow it’s going to cost you $9, and the day after it’s going to cost you a dollar, that’s a problem from a consumer-mindset standpoint.” The finance chief added: “So we view crypto more as an asset class.”

However, Mehra concluded: “But as a payment instrument, we think stablecoins and CBDCs potentially have a little bit more runway.”

Earlier this year, Mastercard increased its payments consulting services scope to cover cryptocurrency. The service covers “a range of digital currency capabilities, from early-stage education, risk assessments, and bank-wide crypto and NFT strategy development to crypto cards and the design of crypto loyalty programs.”