Mastercard's CEO Predicts When Crypto Will Become Mainstream

Mastercard Michael Miebach has predicted that widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies is a long way away from becoming a reality. While maintaining an optimistic attitude towards the asset class gaining more popularity in the future, Miebach said that the formulation of apt laws is needed as soon as possible. The Mastercard chief executive is a Bitcoin supporter and aims to speed things up to the time where BTC is used as a regular payment option.

In a recent interview with Yahoo Finance, Miebach claimed that an increasing number of investors are showing enthusiasm to experiment with crypto assets. 

“I think these things need to click in, and then you have the building blocks for it to become mainstream. I think it's a long way to go before crypto becomes mainstream,” the Mastercard honcho was quoted as saying.

Founded in November 1966, Mastercard today provides financial services to millions of people worldwide.

Keeping up with the newer generation of customers, the card services provider is now expanding into the crypto sector.

Last month, Mastercard teamed up with blockchain infrastructure platform Paxos on a programme designed to help banks and fintech companies offer their customers crypto trading services.

In addition, the company has launched a new tool called ‘Crypto Secure' that is intended to help banks and financial institutions detect as well as prevent fraudulent activities associated with virtual digital assets.

Meanwhile, Mastercard CFO Sachin Mehra does not concur with his colleague. Mehra believes that cryptocurrencies are too volatile in nature to be a dependable payment instrument.

“If something fluctuates in value every day, such that your Starbucks coffee today costs you $3 (roughly Rs. 240) and tomorrow it's going to cost you $9 (roughly Rs. 715), and the day after it's going to cost you a dollar, that's a problem from a consumer-mindset standpoint,” the CFO was quoted as saying in an interview in August.