- Mastercard is expanding its Crypto Credential system to self-custody wallets through a partnership with Polygon and Mercuyo.
- The firm has broadened its presence in the crypto space via collaborations with Ripple, Chainlink, Revolut, and other blockchain platforms.
Mastercard, an American multinational financial services corporation, has secured a strategic collaboration with the Polygon (POL) blockchain. Leveraging this partnership, Mastercard will enable crypto payments for its customers and merchants.
Mastercard Leveraging Polygon for Crypto Payments
As disclosed in an X post, Mastercard chose the Polygon blockchain to launch username-based transfers for self-custody wallets. This integration is supported by Mercuryo, a global payment infrastructure platform that serves as a bridge between Web2 and decentralized Web3 finance.
The central vision of the partnership is that Mastercard is expanding its Crypto Credential system to self-custody wallets. Essentially, Mastercard plans to build blockchain-based infrastructures that allow consumers, merchants, and financial institutions to perform crypto transactions.
This initiative introduces verified, username-based transfers that replace long, complex blockchain wallet addresses with simple, human-readable aliases. This is similar to how users send money through a username on apps like Venmo and PayPal.
Mastercard provides the overall verification framework and Crypto Credential standard to build trust in blockchain transfers. Through the Mastercard Crypto Credential, users can onboard once, receive a verified username, link their wallet, and instantly access assets.
They no longer need to copy a hexadecimal string ever again. As explained in our last post, the initiative simplifies users’ experience and reduces the risk of mistakenly sending crypto to the wrong address.
Mastercard selected Polygon as the first blockchain network chosen to support payments due to its low-cost infrastructure built for speed, reliability, and scalability.
Mercuryo, on the other hand, will onboard verified users and issue credentials, while Polygon provides the blockchain rails.
Raj Dhamodharan, Executive Vice President Blockchain & Digital Assets at Mastercard, has earlier shared his opinion about the initiative. He said Mastercard Crypto Credential is building trust in digital token transfers by streamlining wallet addresses and adding meaningful verification.
Mastercard Moves Deeper into Crypto
Notably, the new initiative is just one among Mastercard’s latest expansion moves in the crypto sector.
In a recent study we reported on, Mastercard formed a collaboration with Ripple Labs and Gemini to pilot a new method of settling credit card transactions. The firm aimed to use the RLUSD stablecoin on the XRP Ledger to streamline and enhance global payment systems.
On its part, Gemini will link its credit card, issued by WebBank, to a blockchain-based settlement network that finalizes transactions in RLUSD. This integration replaces the traditional, behind-the-scenes bank transfer process.
In another crypto expansion move, Mastercard integrated with Chainlink via Swapper Finance. As mentioned in our previous news brief, the partnership aims to give 3.5 billion cardholders a direct path into DeFi deposits.
As for Polygon, the blockchain also recorded a wave of partnerships in 2025. In November, Calastone, a leading global funds network, linked its Tokenised Distribution platform with the Polygon network. The integration enabled tokenised fund transactions to operate directly on blockchain infrastructure.
Revolut also integrated Polygon to enable instant stablecoin transfers and expand POL trading and staking for users. The Revolut app now supports stablecoin-based trading and payments using Polygon’s blockchain, with over 65 million users across 38 countries.
