[Money20/20 – BVNK and Mastercard video interview] Stablecoins, cross-border payments explained
CP
Claudia Pincovski
03 Jul 2026 / 7 Min Read
Stablecoins are moving fast from the crypto-native niche into everyday payments infrastructure. At Money20/20, we discussed with BVNK and Mastercard to understand where that shift is heading and what's actually driving it.
Mastercard isn't trying to convert customers to crypto; it's making the option available, safe, and simple for those who already want it. Since launching its first crypto card in 2019, that approach has scaled to more than 130 programs globally, giving cardholders a way to spend stablecoin and crypto balances anywhere Mastercard is accepted.
Solving cross-border settlement
Cross-border payments have long been bottlenecked by local currency accumulating in a given market and then crawling through slow, outdated correspondent banking rails to settle abroad. Stablecoin checkout removes that bottleneck entirely: when a merchant accepts stablecoin, funds move instantly to wherever they're located, eliminating trapped capital and cutting both settlement time and cost. It hasn't reached mainstream scale yet, but BVNK is already routing billions of dollars in volume through it, which suggests the real constraint was infrastructure, not demand.
Emerging markets are the leading indicator
If there's a signal for where stablecoins go next, it's coming from outside the US and Europe. Mastercard Move, which connects to roughly 17 billion endpoints worldwide, is seeing rising demand from gig economy workers across Latin America, Asia, and Africa who actively choose stablecoin payouts over local fiat. These are markets adopting stablecoins because they solve an immediate problem, not because of ideological interest in crypto.
Banks are sitting on unmet demand
The most concrete data point from the conversation came from BVNK's own research: a survey of 4,000 consumers across 15 countries found that 77% would use a stablecoin wallet or service if their existing bank offered one. That's a striking amount of latent demand most banks haven't acted on. BVNK is already working with numerous B2B payment platforms and a growing number of banks to build these use cases.
Regulation, not technology, is the bottleneck
Institutional adoption hinges less on new capability and more on clarity. Institutions move when they can demonstrate compliance, when solutions come with credible fraud detection and investigation tooling, and when the regulatory ground isn't shifting under them. Mastercard's crypto partner program has grown to 130 providers covering different parts of the stack, which tracks with a broader acceleration in institutional participation seen over recent quarters.
What's next: wallets, yield, and AI-driven payments
Looking ahead, the roadmap points toward digital dollar wallets that do more than hold a balance: sending, spending, and earning yield natively, effectively merging checking and savings into a single product. Stablecoin-linked cards extend that utility further. The more forward-looking piece is agentic payments: equipping AI agents with their own stablecoin wallets and virtual cards so they can transact autonomously, without a human approving every step.
About Raj Dhamodharan
Raj Dhamodharan is Executive Vice President, Blockchain and Digital Assets at Mastercard. In this role, Raj leads the company’s strategy and product development across digital currencies, blockchain, and digital asset ecosystems. Raj has extensive experience in payments innovation and has been instrumental in advancing Mastercard’s work in crypto, central bank digital currencies, and open banking. Raj is a recognised industry voice on the future of digital payments and emerging financial technologies.
About Chris Harmse
A respected authority in the stablecoin infrastructure space and digital asset innovation, Chris co-founded BVNK to help enterprises accelerate global money movement through blockchain technology. Chris spearheads BVNK's strategic growth initiatives, overseeing teams, product innovation, and P&L performance.
About Mastercard
Mastercard is a global technology company in the payments industry. Our mission is to connect and power an inclusive, digital economy that benefits everyone, everywhere by making transactions safe, simple, smart and accessible. Using secure data and networks, partnerships and passion, our innovations and solutions help individuals, financial institutions, governments and businesses realise their greatest potential.
About BVNK
BVNK is the stablecoin-powered financial stack for enterprises. Build financial products, unlock new markets, and move money in seconds across 130+ countries. Trusted by industry leaders like Worldpay, Deel and Corpay and processing billions annually.
The Paypers is a global hub for market insights, real-time news, expert interviews, and in-depth analyses and resources across payments, fintech, and the digital economy. We deliver reports, webinars, and commentary on key topics, including regulation, real-time payments, cross-border payments and ecommerce, digital identity, payment innovation and infrastructure, Open Banking, Embedded Finance, crypto, fraud and financial crime prevention, and more – all developed in collaboration with industry experts and leaders.
