Mastercard and Round have teamed up to facilitate payments for USDC and EURC in the Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EEMEA) regions. This effort aims to enhance digital trade in emerging markets, enabling institutions to acquire and settle transactions using these stablecoins, the companies announced on August 26.
“Trust is vital for growth, and we’re excited to leverage our security and compliance expertise in the Stablecoin space,” commented Mastercard’s President for the EEMEA region, Dimitrius Awakening, in the announcement.
Circle’s Chief Business Officer, Kash Razagi, noted that their collaboration with Mastercard is focused on making Stablecoins an essential tool for everyday financial transactions globally.
Arab Financial Services is among the first to adopt this new solution, with CEO Samer Soliman mentioning that these features help minimize the complications related to numerous settlements.
Another early adopter, Eazy Financial Services, expressed satisfaction with this feature, describing it as offering a “faster, safer, more efficient payment solution,” according to the company’s founder and CEO, Knife Al Arawi.
This new product showcases the growing partnership between Mastercard and Circle. The two are already working together in the EEMEA on various Crypto Card Solutions, including partnerships with Bybit and s1lkpay, which utilize USDC for transaction resolutions.
Circle reported on August 12 that the amount of USDC in circulation had surged 90% year-over-year to $61.3 billion as of June 30 and increased by 6.4% to $65.2 billion by August 10. The company noted a significant market increase for fiat-backed stablecoins.
In April, Mastercard announced numerous partnerships to promote Stablecoin usage, highlighting areas like wallet enablement, card issuance, and enhanced merchant reconciliation.
“We see great potential in stablecoins to simplify payments and boost commerce throughout the value chain,” stated Mastercard’s Chief Product Officer, Joan Lambert, in a previous press release.
