Mastercard expands card settlement with stablecoins, collaborate with Visa and Stripe to launch n...
Popular payments platform Mastercard has announced that it will let card issuers and its customers settle card transactions using more stablecoins across eight different blockchains. This comes alongside reports of a new stablecoin platform in the works in partnership with Visa and Stripe. The stablecoin expansion by the payments platform will support six new dollar-pegged tokens including Circle’s USDC, PayPal USD (PYUSD) and Pax Dollar (USDP) from Paxos, Ripple USD (RLUSD), Global Dollar (USDG), and SoFi’s SoFiUSD. The transactions will be made across the Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, Base, Arbitrum, XRPL, Canton, and Tempo blockchains, according to Mastercard’s press release. This upgrade also adds intraday settlement windows in addition to weekend and holiday processing for fiat currencies. Mastercard mentioned that both changes are intended to give partners more control over liquidity and timing, especially for cross-border payments and payouts. Rollout timeline for Mastercard stablecoin changes Initial participants of these changes will be in the United States and Latin America. ARQ (formerly DolarApp), CBW Bank, Cross River, Lead Bank, and Nuvei will all be among these participants, according to the statement. Further expansion into other zones, continents and issuers are planned till the end of 2026. These changes come after months of positioning by the payments platform to integrate crypto payments into its infrastructure. Mastercard had secured a BitLicense from the New York State Department of Financial Services in May 2026 and agreed in March to acquire stablecoin infrastructure firm BVNK for up to $1.8 billion (an initial $1.5 billion price with an additional $300 million in performance-linked payments). Payment platforms embrace stablecoins Mastercard is not alone in working toward stablecoin integration for payments. Visa also expanded its own supported stablecoins to nine blockchains in April 2026, amounting to a $7 billion ARR (annualized run rate), representing a 50% increase from the prior quarter according to CoinMarketCap. Stripe also entered the space in late 2024 when it acquired stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge for $1.1 billion. MoneyGram launched its own MGUSD stablecoin on Stellar on June 2, issued through the Stripe-owned Bridge, further proving the rate of increase in institutional adoption of stablecoins. The new joint stablecoin platform with Visa and Stripe Stripe, Visa, and Mastercard are also close to introducing a totally new joint stablecoin platform. Coinbase is also exploring whether to participate, according to reports. None of the companies have confirmed this project publicly. The total stablecoin market is now at a combined market capitalization of almost $325 billion, according to CoinGecko data, with Tether’s USDT holding the highest share. Don’t just read crypto news. Understand it. Subscribe to our newsletter. It's free.
Strive in position to buy 10x BTC holdings at current fundraising pace, exec says
The chief risk officer of Strive, Jeff Walton, just shared that the Bitcoin treasury firm is raising $8.1 million in capital per day. At this pace, he claims Strive could generate enough capital to issue up to $15.5 billion in preferred stock and use those funds to purchase approximately 175,000 more Bitcoins at current market prices. He made those comments today, June 3, as Strive (NASDAQ: ASST) continues its trend of record-breaking weekly Bitcoin purchases. Walton claims that if the firm sustains its current fundraising pace through its SATA preferred stock program, it would be able to increase its total Bitcoin holdings by almost ten times. Strive breaking records each week Strive’s Bitcoin treasury currently holds 19,000 BTC, after an aggressive acquisition of 2,500 coins between May 23 and June 1 for roughly $185.2 million, according to Cryptopolitan’s previous reports. The purchase was funded almost entirely through SATA sales, at an average cost of about $74,092 per coin. Walton also stated yesterday, June 2, that last week was “the largest non-IPO single week buy in company history,” beating the record the company had set just two weeks earlier. “Strive team hit the BTC order book hard last week,” Walton said. “19,000 total BTC and picking up steam.” As the seventh-largest public corporate Bitcoin holder according to BitcoinTreasuries.net, Strive sits ahead of Coinbase at 16,492 BTC and Riot Platforms at 15,680 BTC. According to Cryptopolitan, the company made 17 separate purchases since September 2025, when it held just 69 BTC. Strive continues to accumulate BTC at a faster pace than anyone else. Source: BitcoinTreasuries.net. Walton pushes back on Strategy skeptics Walton also used the opportunity to defend Strategy (NASDAQ: MSTR), which is currently the largest corporate Bitcoin holder with 843,706 BTC, as Strategy recently faced questions following the decision to sell 32 Bitcoins last week for roughly $2.5 million, which it used to cover dividends for its preferred stock. Walton argued that most observers missed the bigger picture: selling a small amount of Bitcoin allowed Strategy to simultaneously boost its cash reserves by up to $29 million (a 3.3% weekly increase). He also projected that if the company maintains this trajectory, its cash position will grow to $2.25 billion by December, demonstrating a focus on overall liquidity alongside its Bitcoin accumulation. Speaking on Strategy’s stock performance, Walton also noted that its market capitalization had stayed “relatively flat” over the past 34 trading days, even while the price of Bitcoin declined by 10% during that same period. As such, the stability reduced the impact on Strategy’s market standing, with the company dropping only five positions in the market cap rankings to 233rd among all U.S. public companies. “Yes composite stock markets are at ATH’s but middle of the pack is relatively flat,” Walton stated. He also compared Strategy’s balance sheet to eBay’s, which sits just above MSTR at 232nd by market cap, highlighting the contrast between a traditional e-commerce company and one built around a Bitcoin treasury. Does Strive’s math add up? Walton’s projection that Strive could acquire 175,000 additional BTC depends on various factors, one of them being that the firm maintains its current daily fundraising rate indefinitely and invests every dollar into Bitcoin at today’s market price. In reality, however, achieving this goal is more complex, as the $15.5 billion in proposed SATA issuance would require significant regulatory steps, including amended SEC filings that would allow Strive to officially expand its “at-the-market” programs by $4.2 billion as it previously announced. Strive opened trading today at $15.81. Source: Google Finance. According to Google Finance data, ASST shares are trading at $15.43 as of today, updating the company’s market cap to approximately $1.19 billion. The stock remains down sharply from its 2025 highs despite gaining over 100% in the past three months. If you're reading this, you’re already ahead. Stay there with our newsletter.