Mastercard

Crypto Biz: Coinbase has a lot at stake

Coinbase says its staking product offerings are different than Kraken’s, which came under SEC scrutiny and resulted in a $30 million fine.

Crypto assets made their way onto the United States Securities and Exchange Commission’s list of priorities for 2023. So far, though, we haven’t tasted the “regulatory certainty” many have been calling for. Instead, the regulator threw the book at Kraken for allegedly failing to register its staking program. Coinbase appears next on the chopping block, but its lawyers are ready to fight.

This week’s Crypto Biz newsletter delves into Coinbase’s defense of its staking program and its not-too-pleasant quarterly financials. We also look at the latest company to fall victim to Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX.

Coinbase beats Q4 earnings estimates amid falling transaction volume

Q4 was a rough quarter for the cryptocurrency market, and nowhere was this more evident than in Coinbase’s latest earnings report. On Feb. 21, the crypto exchange reported a 12% drop in transaction volumes during the quarter as revenues plummeted 57% year-on-year. Although the revenue figures were higher than expected, I wouldn’t put much stock in Wall Street’s projections. (If you set the bar low enough, anyone can “beat expectations.”) Nevertheless, there was a silver lining: Coinbase’s subscription and service revenues increased 34% during the quarter. However, investors should be aware that Coinbase is being probed by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for its staking products. The exchange is attempting to put out the fire before it even starts (more on that below).

Coinbase staking ‘fundamentally different’ to Kraken’s — chief lawyer

With the SEC cracking down on Kraken over its staking products, other exchanges are trying to get ahead of the curve to avoid similar repercussions. This week, Coinbase’s chief legal officer Paul Grewal told shareholders that the exchange’s staking products “are fundamentally different from the yield products described in the reinforcement action against Kraken.” According to Grewal, Coinbase users always retain ownership of their digital assets. Secondly, users have a “right to the return,” which means Coinbase can’t unilaterally decide not to pay any rewards for staking. The SEC filed a complaint against Kraken alleging that the exchange’s users lose control of their tokens when participating in the staking program. Kraken settled with the SEC for $30 million.

Hedge fund closes operations after losing funds in FTX exchange: Report

The crypto market felt FTX’s enduring legacy again this week after hedge fund Galois Capital reportedly shut its doors. Galois had sizable exposure to FTX when the exchange went bust in November 2022. According to the Financial Times, Galois’ co-founder Kevin Zhou has already penned a letter to investors apologizing for his firm’s involvement with FTX. Zhou also told investors they would receive 90% of Galois’ remaining assets, with the remaining 10% held at the firm temporarily. Like other FTX creditors, Galois is waiting for the bankruptcy process to begin — that process could take up to a decade to fully pan out.

Mastercard to allow crypto payments in Web3 via USDC settlements

Mastercard’s foray into the digital asset market continued this week after the payments giant disclosed a partnership with Web3 payment protocol Immersive. This means Mastercard users wishing to make a direct crypto payment will no longer rely on third parties — as long as they have a Web3 wallet. Real-time payments for digital and physical goods will be settled in USD Coin (USDC), a U.S. dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Circle. Will this partnership be an important milestone in advancing the mainstream adoption of Web3 wallets, or will it be lost in the noise? Only time will tell. In the meantime, much more work is needed to educate people about Web3’s actual meaning.

Before you go: Beware of Bing AI chat and ChatGPT pump-and-dump tokens

ChatGPT has taken the world by storm in recent months. Now, scammers want to capitalize on this growing trend by launching a series of fake pump-and-dump tokens. Investors, beware! In this week’s Market Report, Marcel Pechman and I dissect the recent explosion in pump-and-dump tokens and share a few words of wisdom on how to stay safe. We also give you the latest pulse of the cryptocurrency market and whether Bitcoin is bullish or bearish. You can watch the full replay below.

Crypto Biz is your weekly pulse of the business behind blockchain and crypto, delivered directly to your inbox every Thursday.

Mastercard to allow crypto payments in Web3 via USDC settlements

The Mastercard-Immersve partnership uses decentralized protocols to settle real-time cryptocurrency transactions on outlets accepting Mastercard payments online.

A partnership between Web3 payment protocol Immersve and payments giant Mastercard will allow users to make crypto payments on digital, physical and the metaverse worlds. Once the transaction is successful from the user’s end, USD Coin (USDC) tokens — a United States dollar-backed stablecoin issued by Circle — will get converted to fiat and be used to settle transactions on Mastercard’s network.

The Mastercard-Immersve partnership uses decentralized protocols to settle real-time cryptocurrency transactions on outlets accepting Mastercard payments online. Users will be able to use their existing Web3 wallets to make direct crypto payments without relying on a third party for collateral.

Instead, Immersve will partner with a third-party settlement provider and allow its users to use USDC for all purchases. 

Immersve-Mastercard partnership for crypto payments in the Metaverse. Source: Immersve

Users will be able to access the feature through popular Web3 wallets and use their private keys to approve payments. Immersve CEO Jerome Faury shared optimism toward crypto use cases, stating:

“Collaborating with a well-known and trusted brand like Mastercard is a big step towards mainstream adoption of Web3 wallets.”

Moreover, Web3 wallets and decentralized finance protocols can integrate into Immersve’s APIs and smart contracts to transact anywhere Mastercard is accepted.

Related: Bit2Me and Mastercard launch debit card with crypto cashback

Over several years, Mastercard has fostered numerous partnerships to stay relevant in the crypto ecosystem. One such initiative was Mastercard’s partnership with crypto exchange Binance to launch a prepaid card in Latin America.

The card allows real-time crypto-fiat conversions for 14 tokens in Brazil. At the time of the launch, perks included up to 8% cash back in crypto on eligible purchases and zero fees on some ATM withdrawals.

Bit2Me and Mastercard launch debit card with crypto cashback

The new debit card builds on technology already in place in the existing Bit2Me crypto card, but this time, card holders are eligible for up to 9% crypto cashback.

The merger of Web2 and Web3 tools continues as crypto-backed debit cards become more mainstream. 

In an announcement on Feb. 10, Bit2Me, the largest Spanish cryptocurrency exchange, revealed its new cashback debit card in partnership with Mastercard.

The original Bit2Me card works for its users via the Mastercard network that hosts millions of businesses worldwide. This new update offers users up to 9% crypto cashback for all purchases made with the card online or in-store.

Leif Ferreira, the CEO and co-founder of Bit2Me, told Cointelegraph that the use of already known Web2 financial tools like debit and credit cards comes with the hope of greater adoption of this “revolutionary” technology

“[The] goal is that any user from anywhere in the world has easy access to the limitless world of Web3 financial services, at the touch of a button.”

The card and wallet support eight cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Cardano (ADA), Ripple (XRP), Solana (SOL) and Polkadot (DOT), along with the stablecoin Tether (USDT).

The company reportedly plans to add additional currencies throughout the year. Bit2Me is currently available to users in 69 countries around the world. However, users in the European Economic Area (EEA) are only eligible to apply for the virtual version of the card.

Related: The state of crypto in Southern Europe: Malta leads the way

Bit2Me has had service expansion on its radar for some time, after its initial announcement in 2021 to offer services globally. Back in July, the exchange was quick to jump to help 100,000 blocked crypto investors onboard onto its platform after they wereshut out from the defunct local Spanish trading platform 2gether.

Meanwhile, Mastercard has also been active in offering new services and opportunities for users and clients in the Web3 space. It has chosen at least seven blockchain and crypto startups to be a part of its fintech accelerator program in the last year. 

The company also partnered with Polygon to launch a Web3 musician accelerator program, focusing on the intersection of the music industry and emerging technologies.

On Jan. 31, Mastercard announced a new effort with Binance to launch their second prepaid crypto card in Latin America.

Nifty News: Bitcoin NFTs cause spicy fees, Mastercard exec tokenizes resignation letter and more

Users are posting massive files to the Bitcoin network via the Ordinals protocol, taking up block space and paying high fees to do so.

Bitcoin Ordinals cause fees to spike

The Bitcoin (BTC)-native Ordinals protocol is taking up record-breaking space on the blockchain and, in the process, hiking the transaction fees on the network.

The divisive newly launched protocol allows for nonfungible token (NFT) assets on the Bitcoin mainnet by inscribing satoshis with content.

So far, inscriptions have included content such as images, documents including a PDF file of the Bitcoin white paper and even a fully playable clone of the video game DOOM.

The 31.2 kilobyte DOOM clone (pictured) will now forever be playable on Bitcoin. Image: Ordinals

On Feb. 2, independent developer, Udi Wertheimer, tweeted he had conducted the “largest transaction in Bitcoin’s history” after using the Ordinals protocol to inscribe a 3.94-megabyte image of a sunglass-wearing, bald, bearded wizard lauding “magic internet JPEGs.”

The data size of these inscribed transactions is much more than those typically conducted on the blockchain and, as a result, has driven up the fees associated with processing them.

Typical Bitcoin transactions can cost a few cents to a few dollars, but Ordinals can cost tens of dollars in comparison.

Figures from crypto-mining data provider Hashrate Index show over the past seven days, fees as a percentage of the block reward are on the rise, starting off the week at around 1% before jumping to a Feb. 1 weekly high of 6.74%.

Mastercard’s NFT lead quits on bad terms, sells resignation letter as NFT

The now-former NFT product lead at payments giant Mastercard left the company in a spectacular fashion, publicly slamming the firm for purportedly mistreating him and offering up his resignation letter as an NFT.

In a Feb. 2 Twitter thread, Satvik Sethi claimed Mastercard cut his salary by 40% when he moved from New York City to London, claiming he “had to work side jobs this past year to make ends meet.”

He claimed that at times he would not receive his salary “until I begged across the hierarchy for it.”

Sethi also alleged he was the victim of harassment “caused by a series of mismanaged processes, miscommunication [and] internal inefficiency.”

He asked his over 22,000 Twitter followers for their support by minting his resignation letter for 0.023 Ether (ETH), worth around $37.

“100% of this goes to survival,” Sethi added as he will lose his British work visa and would “be based in India for the foreseeable future.” A future airdrop of art for holders of the NFT was also promised by Sethi.

At the time of writing 53 NFTs of the letter, which Sethi titled “New Beginnings,” had been minted.

Cointelegraph contacted Mastercard for comment regarding Sethi’s allegations but did not immediately receive a response.

eBay eyes talent for its acquired NFT marketplace

E-commerce player eBay is looking to hire several Web3-related roles for its United Kingdom-based NFT marketplace KnownOrigin, which it acquired in June 2022.

Job postings by eBay on LinkedIn revealed it is hiring for positions in the U.K. and at its headquarters in California.

Among the roles are a Manchester-based head of community for KnownOrigin and a content designer and marketing campaign executive for the marketplace, amongst other positions.

The firm is also hiring two California-based positions for a crypto counsel. The job description says the role will see a “creative crypto attorney” joining eBay’s legal team to support its “business, product, compliance and technology teams in the Web3 space.”

OpenSea rolls out suite of tools for NFT creators

NFT marketplace OpenSea released the next series of tools for its “Drops” feature, which is used to help creators launch NFT collections with OpenSea to benefit from its reach.

In a Feb. 2 Twitter thread, OpenSea said it had worked closely with 20 teams to “build a best-in-class drops experience.”

The next phase of the rollout includes giving creators tools to conduct multi-stage minting, smart contract deployment across multiple Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains and personalize web landing pages, among other features.

The tool will be “gradually opening up” to select creators “over the coming weeks,” according to OpenSea.

It will also add more features in the coming weeks before it’s released to the public at large.

OpenSea has experimented with its Drops feature by creating personalized pages for select collections, most notably, one was created for the debut collection by actor Sir Anthony Hopkins which ended up selling out in under 10 minutes.

Other Nifty News:

Japanese Prime Minister, Fumio Kishida, said there are “various possibilities for using Web3” in the country. The government may use NFTs and decentralized autonomous organizations to promote its “Cool Japan” strategy, aiming to show off the nation’s tech and culture.

Cointelegraph spoke with industry professionals on preventing NFT thefts who advised users to take due diligence, revoke unnecessary permissions and segregate NFTs into different wallets, among other measures.

Founder of $7.5M ‘brazen fraud scheme’ gets 8 years behind bars

Randall Crater was ordered to pay back the millions lost by victims of his fraudulent crypto scheme and spend 100 months in jail followed by a three-year supervised release.

Founder of “My Big Coin” Randall Crater has been sentenced to 100 months in prison and ordered to pay over $7.6 million to the victims of his fraudulent scheme. 

The U.S. Department of Justice said on Jan. 31 that Crater was sentenced by United States District Court Judge Denise Casper in Massachusetts.

The sentence comes after Crater was convicted by a federal jury on July 21 on four counts of wire fraud, three counts of unlawful monetary transactions and one count of operating an unlicensed money-transmitting business.

My Big Coin was founded by Crater in 2013 and falsely marketed as a cryptocurrency payment service, luring victims between 2014 and 2017.

Crater claimed the coins on My Big Coin were fully functional cryptocurrencies backed by gold and that the platform had a partnership with Mastercard.

Crater also marketed the “My Big Coin Exchange,” advertised as a crypto exchange where the coins could be swapped for U.S. dollars and other fiat currencies.

Randall Crater’s LinkedIn account photo. Image: LinkedIn

A significant portion of the $7.6 million obtained by Crater and his marketing team went toward a house, several cars and over $1 million in antiques, artwork and jewelry.

U.S. Attorney Rachael Rollins said in a statement the damage done by Crater inflicted a serious amount of trauma and financial hardship on his victims:

“For nearly four years, Mr. Crater perpetrated a brazen fraud scheme that preyed on investors and customers who put their faith in him and his fake business, resulting in victim losses of over $7.5 million.”

“His lies and deception inflicted real trauma, pain and hardship on the lives of 55 individual victims and their families who funneled their money into bank accounts Mr. Crater controlled and used to finance his extravagant lifestyle,” she added.

Related: 800 victims of ‘massive’ Bitconnect fraud to receive $17M restitution

Even after his conviction, Crater continued to protest his innocence, stating in an Oct. 21 YouTube video that a My Big Coin credit card did in fact exist and claiming that an investor testified under oath to having used the card multiple times.

Legal action against Crater dates back to Sept. 25, 2018, when now-former Judge Rya Zobel of the Massachusetts District Court ruled against a motion to dismiss a case launched by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

The Department of Justice officially filed criminal charges against Crater on Feb. 19, 2019.

After Crater’s 100-month tenure behind bars, he will be subject to a supervised release for the following three years.

Mastercard, Binance to launch their second prepaid crypto card in Latin America

The Binance Card will let Brazilians make purchases in crypto, with real-time conversion from 14 crypto assets to fiat at the point of sale

Credit card giant Mastercard has teamed up with the world’s largest crypto exchange to launch another prepaid crypto card in Latin America.

On Jan. 30, Binance announced the launch of the Binance Card in Brazil. The new card is issued by Dock, a payment institution regulated by Banco Central do Brasil, Brazil’s central bank.

The new card will allow new and existing Binance users in the country with valid national IDs to make purchases and pay bills with crypto assets. The card is in a beta testing phase and will be “widely available in the coming weeks,” according to Binance.

Brazil is the second country where Binance has launched the product, following Argentina in August. According to the announcement, Brazil is among the top 10 markets for Binance globally.

In a press release shared with Cointelegraph, Guilherme Nazar, Binance Brazil’s general manager, said that the card is a “significant step in encouraging wider crypto use and global adoption,” adding:

“Payments is one of the first and most obvious use cases for crypto, yet adoption has a lot of room to grow.”

The card will allow real-time conversion from 14 crypto assets to fiat at the point of sale. Perks include up to 8% cash back in crypto on eligible purchases and zero fees on some ATM withdrawals.

According to Mastercard’s 2022 New Payments Index, Brazil leads the global average for crypto usage and adoption. In the global survey of more than 35,000 respondents, it found that 49% of Brazilians have made at least one crypto-related transaction in the past year, compared to the global average of 41%.

Related: Coinbase CEO urges Bitcoin legal tender for Brazil, Argentina — Reaction

In December, outgoing President Jair Bolsonaro signed a bill to legalize the use of cryptocurrency as a payment method within the country.

The new legislation has not made Bitcoin legal tender, as in El Salvador, but it includes many digital assets under the definition of legal payment methods. A licensing regime for virtual asset service providers was also established.

Mastercard partners with Polygon to launch Web3 musician accelerator program

The program will help five emerging artists set up and manage their brands in the Web3 space, and is also aimed at educating people in the music scene on what avenues Web3 tech can offer them.

Global payments giant Mastercard is ramping up its exposure blockchain tech yet again, after announcing a Polygon-based accelerator program to help musicians build their careers via Web3.

The firm announced the “Mastercard Artist Accelerator” program via a Jan. 7 blog post, outlining that from this spring, it will connect five emerging musicians from across the globe with mentors that will  help them set up their brand in the Web3 music space.

“The artists will gain exclusive access to special events, music releases and more. A first-of-its-kind curriculum will teach the artists how to build (and own) their brand through Web3 experiences like minting NFTs, representing themselves in virtual worlds and establishing an engaged community,” the post reads.

The program will culminate with a live-streamed artist showcase later in the year.

Mastercard is also launching a non-fungible token (NFT) collection called the “Mastercard Music Pass” for those that aren’t selected for the program. The aim is to provide hodlers with educational materials and “unique resources” through brand collaborations to help budding musicians learn about the Web3 integrations with the music sector.

Commenting as part of the announcement, Polygon Studios CEO Ryan Watt noted that “Web3 has the potential to empower a new type of artist that can grow a fanbase, make a living, and introduce novel mediums for self-expression and connection on their own terms.”

Polygon looks primed to become a hub for music related Web3 projects. On Dec. 6, Cointelegraph reported that global entertainment giant Warner Music Group had partnered with Polygon Studios and e-commerce and interactive platform builder LGN.io, to build a Web3 music platform called LGND Music.

The platform is slated to launch later this month and will allow users stream music and collect and trade music NFTs.

Related: Mastercard adds 7 blockchain startups to its crypto accelerator

Mastercard has been actively furthering its involvement in the blockchain and crypto sectors. In January 2022, Mastercard joined forces with Coinbase to enable the use of Mastercard cards for purchasing NFTs on Coinbase’s marketplace.

In mid-October 2022, Mastercard partnered with Paxos to allow banks to offer cryptocurrency trading and related services to their customers. 

While in that same month, Cointelegraph also reported that Mastercard had launched a crypto fraud protection tool enabling  banks to find and prevent fraud on crypto merchant platforms within its network.

Mastercard adds 7 blockchain startups to its crypto accelerator

The crypto gateway provider Fasset and Singapore’s Digital Treasures Center are among the startups entering the latest Mastercard Start Path program.

Global payments giant Mastercard continues supporting cryptocurrency and blockchain startups as part of its fintech accelerator, the Mastercard Start Path program.

Mastercard has chosen another seven industry startups for its Start Path program in order to promote the adoption of crypto and blockchain technology, the firm announced on Nov. 3.

The new cohort of startups includes the crypto gateway provider Fasset, Singapore’s crypto payments platform Digital Treasures Center and the Colombian stablecoin-focused firm Stable. Mastercard previously partnered with Fasset in July to jointly work on digital solutions to drive financial inclusion in Indonesia.

The latest Mastercard Start Path program also includes the Web3-focused social payments system provider Loot Bolt, Quadrata privacy startup, the blockchain-based media fintech project Take Back the Mic and the brand-oriented platform Uptop.

According to the announcement, the chosen companies will engage with bridging the gap between Web2 and Web3 as one of their main goals. “We’re welcoming a new cohort of startups to ease access to digital assets, build communities for creators and empower people to innovate for the future through Web3 technologies,” Mastercard added.

Launched in 2014, Mastercard Start Path is a six-month accelerator program that is designed to help startups in expanding and commercializing their products and services. Mastercard has supported more than 350 startups so far, with many of them achieving unicorn status, including firms such as banking provider Thought Machine, the Indian fintech startup Zeta and Razorpay.

In 2021, ​Mastercard launched a dedicated crypto division of Mastercard Start Path, dubbed Start Path Crypto. The crypto accelerator was established to support seed, Series A and Series B startups involved in crypto and blockchain development, offering a three-month support program.

Following the latest addition, the Start Path Crypto program has added a total of 25 crypto-related startups, including digital wallet Uphold, crypto storage firm GK8 and Emin Gün Sirer, CEO and founder of blockchain developer Ava Labs.

Related: Mastercard launches new crypto fraud protection tool

The latest news comes amid ​Mastercard continuing to strengthen its blockchain and crypto expertise. In mid-October, Mastercard launched a new program to allow banks to offer crypto trading capabilities and services to their customers in collaboration with Paxos. Previously, Mastercard collaborated with the Coinbase exchange to allow Coinbase NFT users to make purchases using Mastercard’s cards.

Mastercard taps Paxos to launch crypto trading for banks

Mastercard will deploy its technology to integrate crypto trading into banks’ interfaces, while Paxos is set to provide its trading and custody services.

Mastercard officially announced on Oct. 17 a new program to enable financial institutions to bring crypto trading capabilities and services to their customers.

Called “Crypto Source,” the program is designed to allow users to buy, hold and sell cryptocurrencies, complemented by Mastercard’s proprietary Crypto Secure solution for additional security and compliance.

The tool is launched in cooperation with Mastercard’s existing partner Paxos Trust Company and is reportedly expected to launch in Q4 2022. Paxos is known for providing similar services to global payment giant PayPal, which launched its first crypto services in late 2020.

Within the new partnership, Paxos will provide crypto asset trading and custody services on behalf of the banks, while Mastercard will deploy its technology to integrate crypto trading into banks’ interfaces.

Ajay Bhalla, president of Mastercard’s cyber and intelligence unit, pointed out the company’s growing crypto expertise and commitment to the market. He mentioned Mastercard’s recent crypto-related investments, including acquisitions of the crypto intelligence service CipherTrace in September and the digital identity platform Ekata in April last year.

Announcing the news, Mastercard referred to the 2022 Mastercard New Payments Index, reporting that 29% of respondents globally hold cryptocurrency as an investment. Another 65% of respondents reportedly indicated a preference for crypto services to be provided by their current trusted financial institution.

“What we are announcing today is a connected approach to services that will help bring users safely and securely into the crypto ecosystem,” Bhalla noted.

Paxos’ head of strategy Walter Hessert also highlighted the scale of Mastercard’s global network of financial institutions. According to the executive, the new tool will provide banks and creditors with the “most trusted way to offer safe, reliable crypto assets.”

Mastercard’s latest crypto initiative comes amid the total crypto market capitalization falling about 60% since the beginning of 2022. According to Jorn Lambert, Mastercard’s chief digital officer, it would be “shortsighted to think that a little bit of a crypto winter heralds the end of it.”

“As regulation comes in, there is going to be a higher degree of security available to the crypto platforms, and we’ll see a lot of the current issues getting resolved in the quarters in the years to come,” Lambert reportedly stated.

Related: Mastercard launches new crypto fraud protection tool

Mastercard has been actively working on various crypto and blockchain-related initiatives in recent years. In January 2022, Mastercard announced a collaboration with the Coinbase exchange to allow Coinbase NFT users to make purchases using Mastercard’s cards.

In October 2021, Mastercard partnered with the digital asset firm Bakkt to allow its United States-based customers to buy, sell and hold digital assets through custodial wallets.

Global payment giant Mastercard continues its efforts to promote cryptocurrency adoption by developing a new tool allowing banks to trade cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC).

Mastercard launches new crypto fraud protection tool

Mastercard’s new product allows banks to find and prevent fraud on crypto merchant platforms within its network.

The financial service provider Mastercard launched a new crypto service related to risk management on Oct. 3. Mastercard’s new service, Crypto Secure, is aimed to help banks find and prevent fraud on crypto merchant platforms.

Crypto Secure combines the usage of artificial intelligence, blockchain data and public records of crypto transactions, along with other sources, to determine crime-related risks of crypto exchanges within the Mastercard network.

Mastercard already has a similar service with fiat currency transactions available to banks.

The president of cyber and intelligence business for Mastercard, Ajay Bhalla, said this development helps its partners stay compliant with local regulations when fighting fraud in the crypto space:

“The idea is that the kind of trust we provide for digital commerce transactions, we want to be able to provide the same kind of trust to digital asset transactions for consumers, banks and merchants.”

Banks and other Mastercard card issuers that use Crypto Secure will see color-coded risk ratings of crypto merchants, which represent the risk of suspicious or fraudulent activity connected to said merchant.

Crypto Secure is run by CipherTrace, a California-based startup for blockchain security that was acquired by Mastercard the previous year.

While the tool doesn’t make judgements for banks it provides another level of advisory on crypto transactions. Mastercard currently has around 2,400 crypto exchanges within its network.

Related: Mastercard to allow 2.9B cardholders to make direct NFT purchases

Crypto payments are becoming more mainstream thanks to centralized payment processors like Visa and Mastercard. Last year Visa reported over $1 billion in crypto spending, while Mastercard has recently created new crypto payment options in countries such as Argentina and Indonesia.

However, as crypto continues to enter the public eye so does any fraud and crime related to the industry. According to Chainalysis data, 2021 marked a new all-time high in crypto crime with fraudulent wallet addresses receiving $14 billion.

In Australia, in 2022, investors lost $242 million to investment and crypto-related scams. While some executives have recently related crypto to a Ponzi scheme, others are calling on social media giants to be aware of crypto scams linked to their platforms.