Mastercard deepens cryptocurrency compliance with CipherTrace

Mastercard has announced it will extend its capabilities deep into the field of digital assets with an agreement to acquire CipherTrace, a specialist cryptocurrency intelligence company with insight into more than 900 cryptocurrencies.

The strengthening of its compliance offering, comes as digital assets, including cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), become more increasingly intertwined with everyday activities.

As these new technologies grow, they will also require new solutions and deeper intelligence to boost the crypto economy, the integrated offering will build on CipherTrace’s suite of digital assets and Mastercard’s cyber security solutions to provide businesses with greater transparency.

Ajay Bhalla, president, Cyber & Intelligence at Mastercard, commented: “Digital assets have the potential to reimagine commerce, from everyday acts like paying and getting paid to transforming economies, making them more inclusive and efficient. 

“With the rapid growth of the digital asset ecosystem comes the need to ensure it is trusted and safe. Our aim is to build upon the complementary capabilities of Mastercard and CipherTrace to do just this.”

The deal enables Mastercard to combine the technology, AI and cyber capabilities of both companies to differentiate its card and real-time payments infrastructure, allowing customers and stakeholders globally to build upon and benefit from the solutions to protect their consumers and comply with regulations, as they build their own virtual asset offerings.     

“We help companies – whether they are banks or cryptocurrency exchanges, government regulators or law enforcement to keep the crypto economy safe,” added Dave Jevans, CEO, CipherTrace. “Our two companies share this vision to provide security and trust throughout the ecosystem. We are thrilled to join the Mastercard family to scale CipherTrace’s reach across the globe.”