Rain becomes Mastercard Principal Member to issue stablecoin cards

Rain has become a Mastercard Principal Member, a status that lets the stablecoin payments startup issue credit and prepaid cards funded and settled with stablecoins on Mastercard’s global network. The membership opens access to hundreds of millions of merchants across more than 210 countries and territories.

The company announced the change on Monday and said the status will let it expand card offerings beyond an existing relationship with Visa and speed the rollout of stablecoin-based payment products. In a statement, Rain described its infrastructure as “purpose-built for stablecoin card programs, not retrofitted from a fiat model,” and said that design allows programs to expand across geographies through a single integration rather than rebuilding market by market.

Rain highlighted benefits for partners, writing that “Mastercard Partners get to market faster, and scaling after launch is simpler.” The company and Mastercard plan to explore settling selected card program flows onchain using regulated stablecoins to reduce the capital requirements and operational constraints tied to traditional settlement methods.

Mastercard has been expanding its crypto and stablecoin activity, including work to acquire infrastructure firm BVNK and the launch of a Crypto Partner Program that involves more than 85 crypto companies. Rain’s Principal Member status gives it direct access to Mastercard’s processing and settlement rails for card issuance.

Rain disclosed a $250 million Series C round in January that valued the company at $1.95 billion. The startup has positioned its technology to support stablecoin funding and settlement for card programs and said the Mastercard membership will allow it to scale those programs more quickly across multiple markets.

The company did not provide a public timetable for the launch of specific Mastercard-branded or co-branded cards, but said the membership enables card issuance on Mastercard’s network and supports future exploration of regulated stablecoin settlement for program flows.