Mastercard continues to strengthen its digital asset capabilities, buying cryptocurrency intelligence outfit CipherTrace. Financial terms were not disclosed.
CipherTrace analyses massive amounts of validated blockchain transaction attribution to build up insight on more than 900 cryptocurrencies. This intelligence is ten used by clients, including some of the biggest banks and exchanges in the world, for security and fraud monitoring.
Mastercard says that by integrating this with its own cybersecurity technology, it can give businesses greater transparency into the crypto space, helping them understand risks and manage their digital asset regulatory and compliance obligations.
Ajay Bhalla, president, cyber and intelligence, Mastercard, says: “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 acquisition is part of Mastercard’s aggressive strategy in the digital assets space, which has seen it partner with Uphold, Gemini and BitPay to create crypto cards, build platforms to test and support CBDCs, and programmes to support the broader use of blockchain technology and NFTs.