Category: Banks

Mastercard to Enable Bitcoin Payments Across 150M+ Merchants Globally

On By mehranmuslimiblogIn Banks, BitcoinLeave a comment

In a major step toward mainstream cryptocurrency adoption, Mastercard has announced plans to enable Bitcoin payments across more than 150 million merchants worldwide. This marks one of the most significant integrations of digital assets into the traditional financial ecosystem to date.

A Milestone in Global Crypto Adoption

As one of the largest payment networks in the world, Mastercard’s move sends a clear signal: crypto is no longer fringe — it’s becoming fundamental.

By leveraging its existing infrastructure, Mastercard will allow merchants to accept Bitcoin payments with minimal friction. While customers will still pay in Bitcoin, transactions may be settled in fiat currencies via Mastercard’s backend partnerships, ensuring price stability and usability for businesses unfamiliar with crypto.

How It Works

This integration typically involves:

  • Custodial and conversion partners: Platforms like MoonPay, BitPay, or Paxos may be used to convert BTC to fiat in real-time.
  • POS & online support: Merchants don’t need to hold or manage crypto themselves — the heavy lifting is done via Mastercard’s partnered infrastructure.
  • Consumer-focused experience: End users can spend Bitcoin from their wallets or linked debit cards, seamlessly.

Why This Matters

  1. Access at Scale
    With Mastercard’s global merchant network, Bitcoin could be accepted at grocery stores, online retailers, restaurants, and more — totaling over 150 million points of sale.
  2. Bridging TradFi and DeFi
    This initiative reduces the gap between traditional finance (TradFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi), fostering more interoperability and consumer choice.
  3. Normalization of Crypto
    Regulatory clarity combined with corporate adoption from firms like Mastercard, BlackRock, and PayPal helps legitimize Bitcoin in the eyes of global consumers and institutions.

The Bigger Picture

This isn’t Mastercard’s first step into crypto. The company has previously:

  • Partnered with crypto exchanges and wallets
  • Explored blockchain analytics and compliance tools
  • Launched crypto-backed cards with various fintech startups

But enabling Bitcoin payments at mass scale could be the moment when crypto moves from speculation to real-world utility.

Looking Ahead

If successful, this initiative could pave the way for:

  • Native crypto payments without automatic conversion
  • Support for additional digital assets (ETH, stablecoins, etc.)
  • Stronger incentives for merchants to engage with Web3 ecosystems


Mastercard’s move to enable Bitcoin payments globally could be a turning point for crypto adoption. It not only adds utility to Bitcoin but also helps demystify digital assets for the average consumer.

Bitcoin is no longer just an investment — it’s becoming a payment standard.

#Bitcoin #Mastercard #CryptoAdoption #Payments #Fintech #DigitalAssets #BTC #GlobalCommerce

From One-Off Transactions to Intelligent Payments: The Evolution of Open Banking with VRP

On By mehranmuslimiblogIn BanksLeave a comment

Open banking has ushered in a new era of financial innovation, breaking down the traditional barriers of centralized banking and empowering consumers with greater control over their financial data. At the heart of this transformation lies the evolution of payments, shifting from simple one-off transactions to a more intelligent, automated, and user-centric framework. Among the most significant advancements within this space is the rise of Variable Recurring Payments (VRP), a technology that redefines the way individuals and businesses manage their finances.

Traditional banking transactions have long relied on rigid structures, where consumers manually initiate payments or rely on standing orders and direct debits. These methods, while effective, are often inflexible and require cumbersome authorization processes. Open banking introduced a paradigm shift by allowing third-party providers (TPPs) to securely access financial data through APIs, fostering innovation in financial services. With this new infrastructure in place, payments have become increasingly streamlined, but the introduction of VRP represents an even more sophisticated leap forward.

Variable Recurring Payments allow users to authorize third-party providers to initiate payments on their behalf within predefined parameters. Unlike traditional direct debits, which are fixed and require new mandates for changes, VRPs offer dynamic control, allowing payments to be adjusted in real-time based on user needs and financial conditions. This flexibility ensures that transactions remain both secure and efficient while reducing administrative burdens on consumers and businesses alike.

The benefits of VRPs extend beyond mere convenience. They provide a superior alternative to standing orders by introducing a degree of adaptability that has been largely absent in traditional payment structures. Businesses can leverage VRPs to facilitate intelligent billing, ensuring that customers are charged accurately based on their consumption rather than arbitrary fixed amounts. Subscription-based services, for instance, can adjust payments automatically based on usage patterns, eliminating the need for manual interventions and reducing the risk of overcharging or missed payments.

Security remains a fundamental consideration in the adoption of VRPs. Open banking protocols ensure that transactions are safeguarded by rigorous authentication and authorization processes. Consumers maintain full control over their financial data and can revoke permissions at any time, mitigating the risk of unauthorized transactions. Additionally, regulatory frameworks, such as the Revised Payment Services Directive (PSD2) in Europe, provide a structured and secure environment for the growth of VRPs, reinforcing trust between financial institutions, third-party providers, and end-users.

The adoption of intelligent payments powered by VRPs is poised to revolutionize financial interactions across multiple industries. E-commerce platforms can integrate VRPs to enhance customer experiences by providing seamless, frictionless transactions without the need for repeated manual inputs. Utility providers can leverage VRPs to implement real-time billing adjustments, ensuring fair pricing based on actual usage. The sharing economy, from ride-hailing services to digital content subscriptions, stands to benefit from VRPs by offering more personalized and adaptive pricing models.

As open banking continues to evolve, the expansion of VRPs is likely to reshape the financial ecosystem. Traditional banking institutions, fintech startups, and regulatory bodies are all working to refine the implementation of VRPs to ensure widespread adoption. While challenges remain, including consumer awareness and standardization across different financial jurisdictions, the trajectory of VRPs indicates a shift towards a more intelligent and responsive financial system.

The transition from one-off transactions to intelligent payments marks a fundamental shift in the way money moves within the digital economy. By embracing VRPs, businesses and consumers alike can unlock new efficiencies, streamline financial interactions, and ultimately drive the future of seamless, user-centric banking. As this technology gains traction, it is clear that the era of static payments is giving way to a more dynamic and intelligent financial landscape.

DeFi: the escape route from TradFi

On By mehranmuslimiblogIn Banks, DeFiLeave a comment

How does DeFi differ from TradFi (traditional finance) and what is the difference for the user?

DeFi (decentralized finance) aims to disrupt the finance market by cutting out the middleman, for example, your bank. It focuses on borrowing, lending an market making and allows investors to directly interact with each other on a peer-to-peer (P2P) basis by providing loans or liquidity for trading and assume those roles/functions in return for generating fees. Marc Bernegger,  tech entrepreneur and AltAlpha Digital crypto hedge fund co-founder, describes what has happened, “The disruption of the banking sector, which we have seen in the recent years driven by FinTech players, has now escalated to the next level with DeFi laying the groundwork for a peer-to-peer ecosystem.” 

There are four ‘tools’ that have enabled DeFi to grow. They are:

  • Artificial intelligence
  • Big data
  • Cloud
  • Distributed ledger technology (smart contracts & blockchain)

What is the problem with TradFi?

The TradFi space, while well established, presents some significant barriers to entry for portions of the population. For example, in emerging economies there are large portions of the population (50-70%) that have no access to banking.

By contrast, DeFi is a digital assets space that can be accessed 24/7/365, with services and global network coverage being constantly expanded and improved. Its accessibility has drastically increased with the spread of Internet coverage and cheap smartphones in all economies.

However, while DeFi sounds great in theory and has been shown to work in practice, there is still a long way to go. The topic remains complex and hard to grasp for many potential users. User interfaces and processes still have plenty of room for improvement and simplification, fees can vary, resulting in unreasonably high charges for smaller transaction amounts.

How you can make money with DeFi

There are two ways: you can either invest in the DeFi projects/protocols by buying the respective tokens while expecting capital gains through price increase based on a superior platform offering, user and asset growth. Or, you can actually use these platforms as an “operator” and generate income from the various activities available. These are:

  • Staking
  • Lending
  • Liquidity provision
  • Yield farming

What you should look for in a DeFi project

When doing your due diligence on any DeFi platform, the key things to look at are:

  • Team
  • Technical
  • Tokenomics
  • Insurance
  • Pools

This is a new industry that is growing in front of us, and while it still has to mature, it is changing the face of finance, especially if you want to obtain a loan, or want to make money by lending yours. No TradFi service offers you this with such ease.

Why the world needs DeFi

On By mehranmuslimiblogIn Banks, DeFiLeave a comment

One of the compelling reasons the world needs decentralized finance (DeFi) is the corruption in the financial system. I have just been reading an opinion piece by RTR Crypto in Cointelegraph, which highlights the issue of remittances. Around the world there are a considerable number of people who work in another country in order to send money home. This is a finance sector known as ‘remittances’. The issue for these people is that those companies known as ‘remittance providers’ take a chunk of the workers’ hard earned money, and it could be as much as ten percent, or even 20%.

When migrants send home part of their earnings in the form of remittances, they represent a large source of foreign income for many developing economies. They can represent as much as 4% of the GDP in a low-income country, and 1.5% for middle-income countries. Furthermore, remittances are important because they tend to be stable, and instead of decreasing during economic downturns or after a natural disaster. They actually increase, while private capital in-flows decline at these times.

DeFi solves the remittance pain

As RTR points out, credit card companies and personal loan services charge high fees, as do remittance services. By contrast, a DeFi platform could radically cut the fees workers pay to send money to their home country. Workers pay the high fees because they have no choice – their families depend on this money to keep them out of poverty. The amount sent annually is in the hundreds of billions of dollars, which makes it an appealing sector for DeFi platforms.

DeFi platforms offer everyone, not just the world’s migrant workers, a way to have greater control of their money. In addition to paying much lower transfer fees, users would have access to borrowing, lending, trading on margin and so much more. Plus, DeFi coupled with stablecoins is a powerful combination, especially for the unbanked. And those who receive the remittances can also take advantage of the products offered by DeFi, such as reward systems like liquidity pools or staking. It’s a win-win solution – and that is why the world needs DeFi.