Mastercard has a new plan to enable crypto to be seamlessly used for payments. And it’s now available in Europe.

‍What’s happening:‍

• Mastercard (NYSE: MA) has partnered with Mercuryo to a launch a crypto debit card that is denominated in Euros and allows users to spend digital assets that they hold in self custody wallets
  

Why it matters:‍

• Payment giants have been making moves to get in on the opportunity in crypto and digital assets, including PayPal (NASDAQ: PYPL) notably launching their very own stablecoin for cross border payments and Visa (NYSE: V) previously partnering with Transak to enable crypto to fiat transactions
  

By the numbers:‍

• The new crypto debit card for Mastercard will be able to be used for payment with 100M different merchants globally
  
• Over 40 different digital assets are compatible with the new debit card from Mastercard
  

Going deeper:‍

• Mercuryo is a financial technology company focused specifically on building new integrations for crypto payments and has existing partnerships with leading digital asset companies including MetaMask, Pancake Swap, Ledger and others
  
• Mercuryo is aiming to validate the new technology integration with Mastercard with users located in the European Economic Area and then expand into other countries globally
  

The intrigue:‍

• Bitcoin as a payment method has also been accelerating due to the adoption of the Lightning Network from merchants globally which enables payments to be completed with very low transaction fees

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