Mastercard to settle cards with USDC, PYUSD and RLUSD

Mastercard will begin settling card payments using regulated stablecoins USDC, PYUSD and RLUSD across multiple blockchain networks, enabling intraday, weekend and holiday settlement in both fiat and regulated tokens.

Settlement will be available on public and private chains including Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Base, Arbitrum, Canton, Tempo and the XRP Ledger. Supported token types include Circle's USDC, Paxos-issued PYUSD, USDG, USDP, Ripple's RLUSD and SoFi's SoFiUSD.

The company described the option as interoperable with existing settlement workflows, allowing issuers and acquirers to choose fiat or tokenized settlement on a per-transaction basis while continuing current reconciliation processes.

Mastercard expects banks and payment firms such as ARQ (formerly DolarApp), CBW Bank, Cross River, Lead Bank and Nuvei to offer the stablecoin settlement option first in the United States and Latin America. The program will expand to more partners, currencies and networks through 2026.

In its announcement, Mastercard wrote: “This approach ensures consistency, scalability, and interoperability across Mastercard’s global ecosystem while preserving existing protections including security standards, fraud safeguards, and dispute processes.”

The announcement follows recent regulatory and infrastructure steps by the company. In May Mastercard received a virtual currency license from New York regulators that allows it to clear tokenized deposits and payment stablecoins in that jurisdiction. In March 2026 Mastercard reached a definitive agreement to acquire enterprise stablecoin infrastructure provider BVNK for up to $1.8 billion and recently extended a Principal Membership to stablecoin card issuer Rain.

Payments firms have been testing stablecoin settlement for faster finality and cross-border transfers. Visa has piloted stablecoin-linked settlement across multiple chains, and MoneyGram launched a dollar-linked token on Stellar. The total supply of dollar-pegged tokens is near $300 billion; Tether's USDT accounts for about $188 billion and Circle's USDC about $76 billion.

Mastercard added that settlement in regulated stablecoins will remain optional and operate alongside current rails so merchant payouts, chargeback handling and fraud screening continue to follow existing protocols even as settlement timing varies by network and token type.

The company plans a progressive rollout, adding more institutions, currencies and blockchain networks through 2026.