Mastercard is ramping up its push into crypto, unveiling a global partnership program that brings together more than 85 payments and finance firms — including Circle, Binance and Ripple — to connect digital-asset payments to Mastercard’s network. In a statement released Wednesday, Mastercard said the initiative’s core aim is to scale digital assets and fold them smoothly into established payment rails. The company is positioning itself as a bridge between legacy payment systems and emerging crypto firms, offering services such as card program support, global merchant acceptance and cross-border settlement to help early-stage projects reach mainstream customers. Who’s on board The program spans a broad mix of players across the ecosystem: SoFi Technologies, Worldpay (Global Payments), PayPal, BitGo, Crypto.com, Gemini, Marqeta, Paxos, Shift4 and many more — over 85 partners in total. Mastercard highlighted that enterprise and institutional use cases (payments, settlement and cross-border flows) are accelerating, creating opportunities to improve how money moves globally. Context and recent activity This move follows a November collaboration in which Mastercard, Ripple, Gemini and WebBank explored settling Gemini Credit Card transactions using Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin on the XRP Ledger (XRPL). That pilot signaled the kinds of settlement innovations Mastercard is now looking to scale across its partner base. Ripple’s regulatory push in Australia Separately, Ripple said Wednesday it plans to obtain an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) — via its proposed acquisition of BC Payments Australia Pty Ltd — to expand its payments business in Australia. Once completed, Ripple says the AFSL will let it offer an end-to-end platform for cross-border transfers to banks, fintechs and enterprises, covering compliance, funding, FX and liquidity management. Binance sues WSJ On the legal front, crypto exchange Binance filed a complaint against The Wall Street Journal over a February 23, 2026 article it says was misleading and defamatory. Dugan Bliss, Binance’s global head of litigation, said the lawsuit is necessary to defend the company against misinformation that has damaged its reputation and business, adding: “This type of reporting erodes trust in the broader industry and undermines the efforts of those who are committed to protecting users and advancing positive innovation.” Market snapshot At the time of writing, XRP traded at $1.38, down about 3% over 24 hours — the second-largest decline among the top ten cryptocurrencies, behind only Dogecoin’s roughly 7% drop. Image/Chart credits: OpenArt; TradingView.com. Read more AI-generated news on: undefined/news

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