Mastercard took a big step towards cryptocurrency adoption with the purchase of CipherTrace, a blockchain analytics startup. CipherTrace creates tools that help businesses and government officials uncover illegal cryptocurrency transactions just like Chanalysis and Elliptic. The exact financial details of the sale have yet to be disclosed.

Mastercard says the deal will help address a key concern surrounding bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. That concern is the anonymity of people transacting. Mastercard says the acquisition of CipherTrace will help customers better protect themselves from attacks. Additionally, the deal will help Mastercard remain regulatory compliant as it continues to develop its digital currency project.

Making cryptocurrencies safer for customers

In a statement, Ajay Bhalla, president of Cyber ​​and Intelligence at Mastercard, said that "digital assets have the potential to reinvent commerce, from everyday acts like paying and getting paid to transforming economies, making them more inclusive and efficient. ". Bhalla added that as the world of digital assets continues to grow, the need for it to be safe and secure also grows.

CipherTrace will massively help Mastercard in this effort, the team has a history of partnering with large banks and exchanges, and tracks over 7.000 cryptocurrency entities.

In the press release, CipherTrace CEO Dave Jevans said, "We help companies, be they banks or cryptocurrency exchanges, government regulators or law enforcement, keep the cryptocurrency economy safe."

The move will allow Mastercard to make the company's artificial intelligence and IT tools work together to enable global customers to benefit from digital assets.

Mastercard says that matching businesses is an important part of the company's strategy to help consumers and merchants choose how to use digital assets today. Lately Mastercard has gotten into the habit of investing in cryptocurrency companies, including partnership deals with BitPay, Gemini, and Uphold. Such deals range from creating new cryptocurrency cards to testing central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) along with programs to grow and support blockchain technology.

Conclusions

MasterCard is listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NASDAQ shares : NYSE) with a stock price currently at $ 351,41 as of this writing. Since the beginning of the year, the share price has fallen marginally by 0,02%.

The acquisition of a major player in the forensic crypto arena such as CipherTrace could be geared towards greater interaction with central banks and stablecoin issuers on digital currency issues. Crypto.com has announced plans to integrate CipherTrace's “Traveler” tool into its compliance toolkit to ensure compliance with the Financial Action Task Force's “Travel Rule”.