Privacy infrastructure provider Hinkal said on October 9, 2026, that it has joined Mastercard's crypto partner program. According to ChainCatcher, the program connects crypto and blockchain teams with Mastercard and its global payments network, with members including stablecoin issuers, infrastructure providers, fiat on-ramp and off-ramp services, crypto card enablers, and blockchain service providers.

Mastercard said the initiative is designed to turn technical capabilities into compliant use cases for global commerce. Some members can also access financial institutions in the card-issuing and acquiring network, along with regulatory and compliance support aligned with global standards.

The article said the program's use cases include cross-border payments and remittances, B2B transactions, treasury and settlement flows, stablecoin payments, and card programs that let users spend digital assets at ordinary merchants. Hinkal provides embeddable privacy tools for wallets, payment platforms, and blockchains, allowing stablecoins to settle in private balances and move via zero-knowledge proofs without exposing amounts, senders, or recipients during on-chain verification.

The capability is already live on Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, TRON, and other major EVM chains, and can be integrated through SDKs and APIs. Existing integrations include Polygon Wallet's Private Send, Hinkal private sending in Tether's wallet development kit, Turnkey wallets that can add privacy features through the Hinkal SDK, and Avvio, which runs Hinkal private payments in its own interface.